Chapter 4
The chatter inside suddenly became very clear as Katherine opened the door. She could now put faces to the conversations she had been eavesdropping on. The girl, talking to her friend had a long face and short light brown hair. Her friend was almost the opposite. Her face was rounder and she had fiery red hair. It was quite obvious she wasn't a natural redhead. The idiot with the extremely limited knowledge of gravity (and possibly every other aspect of science) was wearing a red leather jacket with black sleeves and 'Mystic Falls Timberwolves' on the back. Katherine redirected her attention to the conversation at the bar.

'…or she'll rip him to shreds.'

Rick's voice had sounded familiar to Katherine because they had met before. It was a brief encounter. The main reason for that was that he had had a momentary lapse of judgement and tried to kill her. He had come to his senses very quickly.

'Yeah, and before Elena goes on another kamikaze-mission.' The Scotch-man emptied his glass and signalled the bartender for another one. He was wearing a black leather jacket, which looked very good on him, and had black hair.

Katherine had had enough of lingering in the background and figured it was time to take some action. Maybe get to know the townspeople a little bit.

Damon Salvatore hadn't had a very good day so far. He was getting used to that. First, Elena nearly screwed up a perfectly good plan. Then, Jeremy actually screwed up a perfectly good plan. Oh, and don't forget about the whole 'Stefan being locked in an underground tomb with an evil bitch'-thing. He sat down on his usual barstool at the Mystic Grill.

'Scotch.' Damon answered the bartender before he could ask.

'So here you are. Moping around isn't gonna help, you know.' He felt a hand patting him once on the back. Alaric, his best friend,(not that Damon would ever admit to that) sat down next to him.

'Thanks for your insight.'
Damon said as Alaric took off his jacket. 'Means a lot.'

The bartender came over with a glass of Scotch and put it in front of Damon. 'Here you go.'

'Thanks.' He immediately put the glass against his mouth and took a big gulp which already made him feel better.

'So how is she doing?' Alaric asked, and that tiny moment where Damon didn't feel like crap disappeared straight away. He turned to face his friend.

'I don't know, Rick. She's pissed at me, that's for sure.' He put the glass back down.

'So nothing new then.' Rick said jokingly. This was usually the case.

'Ha ha, very funny.' Damon said sarcastically. 'You should take that on tour, Mr Comedian.' He was always the bad guy so he should be used to this already.

Alaric raised his hand at the bartender and pointed at Damon's glass.
'Sorry, I had to…mainly because It's true.' He said, still laughing.

'Can't argue with that.' Damon said as he took another sip from his glass.

Alaric lowered his voice so no one else could hear. 'Any plans on how we're gonna get Stefan out of the tomb yet?'

'Well, we need a witch to do that and the one we have isn't up for the job. So no, Rick. I don't have any plans at the moment.' Damon answered a bit irritated.

'It sounds like you've already given up. We need to get your brother out of there, asap or she'll rip him to shreds.' The bartender placed a glass of Scotch in front of him.

'Yeah, and before Elena goes on another kamikaze-mission.'
Damon emptied his one in a gulp and signalled the bartender for another one.

As the bartender brought over his drink, a woman sat down next to him. She had long, brown, soft curling hair and was wearing a thin, black leather jacket. She was quite beautiful, which Damon noticed immediately.

'Well, hello. Can I buy you a drink?'

Katherine turned her head to see a drunk vampire and an off-duty vampire hunter smiling at her. The latter didn't smile for long. His eyes grew big and she heard his heart rate accelerate. She gave him a big smile, while ignoring his friend, and turned to the bartender.

'I'd like a shot of Tequila, on the house.' Looked into the bartender's brown eyes, his pupils dilated. The bartender went off to get her drink.
She then turned to the baffled history teacher and his vampire-mate. 'No thank you. I've got it.'

Alaric, in the meantime, was trying to warn Damon by poking him in the ribs with his elbow. Damon didn't understand the signal so he decided to ignore it.
'Neat trick.' He said.

'Well, I'm sure you have a special skillset of your own. Mr Salvatore, I presume.' The Salvatore brothers being in Mystic Falls was a well-known fact. Even more so for Katherine's family who kept tabs on every link associated with Katerina Petrova.

'You know my name but I don't know yours. Help me out here.' Damon sat up straight and gave one of his persuasive 'how-you-doing' grins.

'Katherine Mikaelson.' She said and reached out her hand.

'Mikaelson?' Damon ignored the hand in front of him and put himself in a defensive position. Katherine noticed this and turned towards the bartender who had just brought over her drink. She smiled at him.

'Oh relax. I'm not here to kill you. If I was, you'd already be dead and in a dumpster somewhere.' She said and poured the shot down her throat.
'Right, Alaric?'

'Ehm, yeah well that is kinda true.' He answered admittedly, careful to avoid eye contact.

'Wait, you guys know each other?' Damon asked confused.

Katherine smiled and turned towards him.
'You might say that. If I remember correctly, Alaric here tried to kill me.'

'In my defence, I didn't know you were an Original vampire. I didn't know you were a Mikaelson, I swear.' Alaric said panicking. She could hear his heartbeat fasten and it nearly jumped out of his chest when she banged her glass on the bar.

'Calm down, Rick. I just wanted to have a civil conversation.' Katherine chuckled. 'And in the meantime meet a Salvatore… Well, that was just a happy surprise.'

'Really?' Damon said, not believing that it was, in fact, a coincidence.

'No. You're just not very good at keeping a low profile.' She answered.

'So you being here is because…?'

'A little bird told me you have the doppelgänger. How could I resist finally meeting a descendant of the infamous Katerina Petrova? Or Katherine Pierce. Whichever you prefer.' She said and waved her hand, gesturing it wasn't important.

'I have no idea what you're talking about.' Damon said not very convincing.

'Oh I'm sorry. Are you not one of the Salvatores that had an unhealthy love triangle with her…AND your brother, right here in Mystic Falls about…150 years ago? How terribly rude of me. I was absolutely sure you where the brutal but charismatic and mostly annoying Damon Salvatore.' Katherine said, putting a thick layer of 'fancy' on top of her British accent.

Before Damon could think of a reply, a faint ringing came from Katherine's pocket.

'Excuse me.' She held up her index finger and picked up her mobile phone.

'Hey, It's me.' A voice said on the other end. Katherine could hear music in the background.

'Hi, sweetie. What's up?' Damon and Alaric shared a confused look.

'The usual. Ghosts and shit.' The voice answered.

'Really?' Katherine paused, expecting an answer. When none came, she continued 'It's just that you don't usually call me when It's just ghosts and shit.'

Nothing could be heard but country music for a moment, when the voice answered: 'Fine. Sammy's been looking at me like I'm gonna have a mental breakdown any second. He's driving me nuts!'

'Well, what did you expect, Dean? I mean, It's Sam. You tell him, anyone for that matter, that you got tortured in hell and then continued to torture others yourself and think everything's gonna be the same?' Katherine said irritated. But she did understand him. She knew how his brother could be.

'I thought you were supposed to be on my side.' Dean said.

'Now we both know that's just not true,' Katherine answered jokingly, 'I'm on the side of the non-whining people.'

'Oh you're hilarious.' Dean said sarcastically.

'I know. I had a stand-up gig in the 70's. But they said I was too anti-governmental in my jokes so they fired me.'

'Okay… I'm gonna hang up now, but I will need proof of that.'

'Bye, say hi to Sammy for me.' She said laughing, and hung up the phone.

During Katherine's phone call, Damon and Alaric had made no attempt to leave. They were too surprised by the strange conversation the vicious vampire was having, which had started with her saying 'sweetie'. This didn't seem to fit the standard view of an Original.

After putting back her phone, Katherine turned towards the two men.

'I feel like we got off on the wrong foot.' She said.

'You might say that.' Damon muttered.

'Look,' She continued, ignoring Damon's reply. 'I'm just here to keep my brother from killing anyone…important.'

'And who decides who's important or not?' Alaric asked sceptically.

'That remains to be seen.' Katherine smiled and stood up from the barstool.

'Leaving so soon? We were just getting to know each other.' Damon said innocently.

'Don't worry, I'll be around Mr Salvatore.' She patted him on the shoulder and winked at Alaric before leaving the Mystic Grill.

Damon and Alaric were left behind with a strong feeling of 'what-the-fuck-did-just-happen?' and looked at each other in confusion until Damon had a realization.

'Hey, did she just leave us with her bill?'