A/N: Since it is way more fun to write this instead of an essay, I thought I give you something to read while I should really go to work *ahem* So, have fun with this chapter and let me know what you think ;)

Kenna: Gotta admit I enjoy your craving ;) Here is a kiss, but don't worry, there will come plenty of them. Kalijah shipper's word of honour. And I'm currently writing on chapter 6, where they finally inaugurate the bed.

Katerina woke to the clattering sound of a plate being put down. Her hair was a mess and the bathrobe she had slept in hung loosely around her slender body. The sound of pouring water came from the bathroom and unwillingly she finally rose. Only to meet Elijah's eyes, which had taken a quick glance over her forms, until he cleared his throat and turned half away.

"I ordered breakfast for you", he explained unnecessarily and held out a cup of coffee for her without looking at her. "Was your journey pleasurable?"

Katerina couldn't quite hide a smirk, but decided to not torture him any further. Yet. Rising from the bed she fixed the bathrobe with a quick knot and tied her hair in a careless bun. Only then she accepted the coffee from his hands and took a sip. Instead of the typical thin English version she tasted the rich flavour of an Italian roast. "It was. Since when are you here?"

"I landed two hours prior", Elijah answered and took a seat at the table, where he grabbed a local newspaper. "You already bought out whole Oxford Street?"

"Not quite." Now Katerina smiled openly and sat down as well. "I wanted to but Nadia was of the mind that it would be too dangerous for me while still being human. Instead we ordered a few things so I don't have to run around naked. Although you wouldn't mind, right?"

"I would", Nadia objected stepping out of the bathroom, fully clothed, and helped herself to a cup of coffee. "What do you think why I fixed you up with those clothes?" Then she turned towards Elijah with keeping some distance between them. "Where are we going today? Will it be safe there?"

Elijah put the newspaper down and looked at her. "It is an estate I required some decades ago. Off the record as William Waldorf Astor and for thirty years it is open to public. I let it close for the next four weeks so we won't have to fear unwelcome visitors. So yes, it is safe there, with all amenities you can wish for. There we will meet the witch."

"Hever Castle, isn't it?" Katerina observed Elijah with wary eyes while grabbing a piece of toast and a spoonful of scrambled eggs. "The castle where we met. Why there? It's impossible the only property you have in England, right?"

"It is not, but I like the place. It is not the same as five hundred years before and neither are we. Klaus won't come there, you can trust me on that. He is too occupied with holding his precious kingdom together to even consider to go away. He also won't sent someone to fetch you. You will be safe there but if you insist you can summon a security staff yourself. Perhaps some who still owe you a favour?" Elijah's voice was calm but Katerina knew him long enough to sense that he wasn't all too happy with her being suspicious.

She shook her head and threw a short glance to Nadia. "No, I trust you. Besides, I don't want too many people knowing that I'm a human and dying. There are more than Klaus that I pissed off during the years." If you wanted to survive, you couldn't make any friends. She'd rather deal with those when she was a vampire again. "Hever Castle is not far from London, I recall. I assume we will go there soon?"

"As soon as you are ready to." With his usually blank, polite expression Elijah turned towards Nadia. "For you a room has been also prepared, right next to Katerina's. Although it is open to you to stay in London and enjoy some free days. I learned you were always at Katerina's side the past weeks, so you surely desire some leisure time."

Nadia managed to scowl so darkly, that even Katerina had to gulp. "I won't leave her side until she tells me to. I don't need any free time and I don't want any as long as she is in danger. You I consider a danger unless you prove me otherwise, so yes: I will gladly take the room you mentioned."

Elijah nodded with something that could even be considered as approval. "Very wise to regard me as a danger. It seems that younger vampires do have an intellect even if there are those like Damon to prove me otherwise."

"She's older than Damon. Way older", Katherine remarked nonchalantly and stood up. "Please don't kill each other while I'm in the bathroom, would you?" She could swear even with her limited human hearing ability she could hear two voices muttering: "Have a go at it." The following three weeks would be anything but boring.

Thanks to traffic two hours later they arrived at Hever Castle. Katerina wound the window on the passenger side down and peered outside. The castle with its sandy walls rose amidst a huge park area. It was a beautiful sight since the English rain had decided to take a break for the day, but a knot formed in her stomach. The last time she arrived her was with a carriage, curious for the people who awaited her here, not knowing how a simple greeting could change her mind. Elijah seemed to sense her uneasiness for he took the hand from the shift knob and laid it atop hers.

"No harm will come to you within these walls, I promise", he said softly, caressing her skin with his thumb before taking the hand back on the steering wheel. "Nor in the gardens, by the way. I don't know how they have done it, but they look almost like back then. Even our bench still exists."

A smile tugged at Katerina's lips and she took a deep breath, reaching behind to clasp Nadia's hand with hers. "It's gonna be fine", she said, almost as if she had to convince herself, not her daughter. "If it's too boring at the countryside we can drive into town once or twice."

Nadia returned the squeeze for a moment, then freed her hand again. "When did you purchase the castle?" Apparently she decided to encounter Elijah not only with rejection. After all her mother loved him and could have wanted him back in her life. Nadia didn't want to muddy this future but she didn't want to give her trust easily either.

Elijah blinked in surprise and met Nadia's gaze in the rear mirror. "Around nineteen hundred. I purchased it under a pseudonym to ensure that I could spent my time here in private if I wish so. When Niklaus and I lived here the first time, it belonged to the Boleyn family, Anne's grandfather to be precise. Niklaus convinced him to surrender it to us since he still owned a house in London where he was Lord Mayor. It was some kind of a scandal, though. The name Mikaelson was old but we hadn't been that long in England, so most of the old houses regarded us as parvenus. Still, we held enough power and land to prove ourselves and make alliances, however dubious. Even Henry VII. once was our guest."

"I remember him. It was during the feast to Klaus's birthday, right? I didn't really meet him, Trevor told me his name as we passed by", Katerina remembered.

"Did Henry want to go to your little party or was he forced to?" Nadia had seen a lot of corruption in her long life but she couldn't belief that the king who ended the wars of the roses let himself being pushed around by some pseudo-monarchs who hadn't the slightest claim to the throne.

Elijah grimaced at the question. "Both, I think. He knew that we held certain alliances – of course also towards those, who still doubted his claim to the throne. Perhaps he wanted to prevent Niklaus from scheming a revolt. In that case he could be glad that Katerina decided not to play along his plans."

"Why, yes, I always liked being the hair in Klaus's soup." Katerina shrugged and loosened the seatbelt before opening the door. She still felt a little queasy but decided to go on with it. It didn't help at all and at the moment she really had no reason for being nervous. "Now he at least has New Orleans to play king, hasn't he? Well, as long as he's not too busy dealing with some witches and a pregnant werewolf."

"You know of Hailey?" Elijah asked while opening the trunk.

Katerina put the hands on her sides and shifted her weight to one leg. "Of course I do. I told him myself. Jane-Anne was a dear friend of mine before Marcel slaughtered her and she told me about it. It's all about having connections, Elijah."

He shook his head. "Why do I even ask?" He then turned to Nadia who was just scrambling from the backseat. "Would you take the luggage? I-"

"What? I'm not a servant, you can carry your stuff yourself", Nadia furiously interrupted. "I'm here to look after Katerina, not to play your serving maid. Bite me!"

Elijah seemed startled for a moment, then his face turned into a scowl. "I did not intend to upset you, but it is rarely seen that Katerina is keeping a plain guard around. I only assumed-"

"Shut it, the both of you!" Katerina stepped to the back of the car and grabbed her bags. "I'll carry my stuff, you'll carry yours. It can be easy like that, can't it?" Right now she had no nerves for the two of them quarrelling and she knew that sooner or later she had to tell Elijah who Nadia was. It was not like she feared him to hurt her; he would never dare if Katerina's opinion of him meant something to him. But she did fear that this little secret could stumble off his lips while talking to Klaus. What if he chose her daughter to pay her back? Katerina would never forgive herself for being the one who offered him this kind of leverage.

Nadia as well as Elijah gaped after her as she climbed the stairs to the wide wooden doors, clearly impeded by her baggage. They exchanged a quick look, then Nadia grabbed the remaining bags while Elijah closed up to Katerina and took her bags from her. "I'm sorry", he said quietly. "Nadia is very different to all those people you have worked with before. I should have known that she is someone important if you let her be by your sickbed. This I won't forget again, I promise."

Katerina only nodded and waited, until Elijah opened the door before she stepped inside. "Which way?"

"First floor, then to the left. It's the first room on the right side", Elijah answered while holding the door open for Nadia. "Nadia's room is one door further. I hope they are to your satisfaction."

Their steps echoed through the hall as they climbed the marble stairs. Katerina opened the door to her room and puzzledly took a step back. The room was nearly as big as the salon in the Salvatore Mansion and was ridden by an enormous canopy bed which creamy curtains were drawn back. Similar curtains were attached to the sides of the ceiling-high window which allowed a wide view into the gardens. Beneath the window was a bench cushioned with the same creamy cloth. On one wall stood a dressing table right beside a writing desk. A half ajar standing door on the right hand led to a bathroom with a tub big enough for two.

"Do you like it?"

Elijah's voice startled her and she turned around with a little smile. "It is wonderful, thank you. It is my old chamber, isn't it? Not the whole room, but part of it."

"I thought it a good idea but if you cannot stand-"

"No", Katerina said quickly. "It was a good idea, really. As you said, we are not the same as back then and Klaus's ghost won't hunt me in here. But just in case, where will you be sleeping?"

Elijah nodded to the door opposite to hers. "Right there. If there is anything you need, tell me. You won't have to run."

Katerina couldn't bite back a chuckle. "You won't ever let that down, will you?"

"Not in a thousand years." Elijah seemed to consider a difficult question in his mind according to his look, but after hesitating once more he caught her face in his palm and bend slightly over to kiss her. Katerina was caught by surprise but eventually she returned the kiss and brought one hand to his chest for support, the other to his neck to deepen the kiss. It almost felt like five hundred years before, briefly before she had to flee, when they had stolen away to the gardens to share some undisturbed moments.

"Hey, the rooms really are gr- Oh, sorry!" Nadia did look apologetic as she burst into the room. Katerina and Elijah quickly let go of on another, one of them blushing, the other clearing his throat, like two teenagers being caught.

"Well, ahem, Maisie will arrive soon, so I will wait in the salon. The both of you can unpack and join me later." Elijah nodded as he passed Nadia and left the room.

Nadia grabbed her mother by the wrist and pulled her into the bathroom before she closed the door and turned on the water-tap. "Don't you think he should know who I am if the two of you get romantic again?" She was angry, that she had to be pushed around only because her mother refused to fess up.

"Of course", Katerina answered quietly. "But it's for your protection. If I'm dead and Klaus finds out about you- I don't want you to suffer for the choices I made a long time ago. But I will tell Elijah, I promise. Even if it's solely to ask him to watch out for you. You tend to make dangerous decisions if you're emotionally involved, you know?"

"When? I mean if you want a babysitter for me, although I don't need one, then we should come to know each other right? And also if he's an asshole, I want to know the man you couldn't forget in five hundred years. The man that couldn't forget you."

"Soon. I promise." Katerina gave her a light kiss on the cheek and smiled. "Now come on, unpacking. We don't want to keep the asshole waiting, do we?"

"I do", Nadia muttered but followed Katerina. She could only hope, that her mother was serious about it.

I kinda come to like those awkward moments :D And even I am curious about how Elijah and Nadia will finally get along. In case of emergency Katerina will have the right weapons, I think ;)