A/N I don't know how's the weather like where you live, but today here in Germany we got cooked by almost 40°C. At least I have enough ice cream. Well, here you go with the new chapter, I hope you like it.

Anna: Update took a little while longer this time, but here it is. Don't worry, steamy moments will come in chapter 6, promise ;)

As Katerina and Nadia descended the stairs and entered the salon, Elijah and a strange young woman already sat there with a cup of tea. Nadia remained with crossed arms at the door, while Katerina approached the delicate coffee table.

Elijah rose and gestured towards the woman. "May I introduce: Maisie, descendant of Joan, a witch who once granted me a wish. Maisie, this is Katherine Pierce; you may have heard of her."

Katerina appreciated Elijah not using her given name. It was something personal and only few people still used it. Strange witches she didn't know or trust were none of those who she would allow to call her like that. For those and her many enemies except for Klaus, Katherine would suffice. "It's a pleasure. And of course you've heard of me, right?"

"Katherine's not exactly a rare name, is it?" Maisie answered unimpressed, but nodded a greeting. "I'm sure you're really badass and all that stuff, but I'm not interested in any stories. Why precisely am I here, Elijah? You only told me it was urgent, so here I am. I would love to get over with it, so I can go back to studying. Finals are in a few weeks and I'm no vampire so I could bumble trough."

If truth be told, Katerina almost instantly didn't like the witch, but she pulled herself together. Aside from biting her teeth together and clenching her fists. This brat probably was her only chance to survive the cure. Before Elijah could even open his mouth, Katerina stated: "We need a cure for the cure for vampirism. As soon as possible, which basically means right now."

"Calm down, grandma, you're ugly when you're mad." Maisie reacted fast as Nadia rushed over to her and put forth her hand, so the vampire groaningly was floored. As if nothing happened, Maisie turned back to face Katerina and Elijah. "What exactly is this cure for vampirism doing? I need a little more information if I'm supposed to help."

Katerina obviously was boiling with rage and she only hardly contained herself. She wanted to rip the bitch's head off, but she couldn't. She was a human and weak and she needed the witch's help. Still, she was proud that Nadia didn't plead and only crouched at the floor. "The cure erases everything that has to do with vampirism. If someone gets sucked dry, time catches up and the person starts to age rapidly. We need you to create a potion or a spell or whatever to stop the aging and potential side-effects of the cure, so the person can be turned into a vampire again."

Maisie smiled devilishly at Katerina. "For someone who ages fast, you seem quite young. Well, aside from the wrinkles around your eyes. And is that an age dot?"

Elijah cleared his throat and slightly stepped between the two woman to prevent a possibly blood bath. "I held a potion in my possession which granted her a few days more. Your ancestor Joan once brew me a potion which would bring someone back to live if this someone had died of blood loss caused by a certain vampire. I need to know if this potion still works that way and if it would be possible to turn said resurrected person into a vampire without some cure hindering it. If not, we need a new solution." He walked over to a sideboard where he picked up a small wooden box. The box he placed on the coffee table and opened it. Inside was a flacon, which glass had turned milky over the centuries, bedded on threadbare velvet.

"May I?" As Elijah nodded, Maisie picked up the flacon cautiously to survey it, while Nadia slowly came to her feet again. "If you've told me earlier, I would have brought Joan's grimoire. Or at least what is left of it. But it's in my dormitory and I guess I would need it to know what she did exactly back then." She clasped it with both her hands, closed her eyes and murmured something.

Katerina anxiously shifted her weight. This didn't seem as it would be done in one or two days. She caught Elijah's glance and he nodded reassuringly. Obviously he trusted the witch, for whatever reason. She only hoped it wouldn't be for nothing.

"What I can tell you is that it still works. At least I think so. I would have it tested if it has to be one specific person to suck her dry or if any vampire could do it. To say if it could countermand the cure, I would need more time and my grimoires. Maybe even the help of another witch. I know one, who-"

"No!" Katerina, Nadia and Elijah exclaimed simultaneously ere the latter added: "I'm sure you can manage this by yourself. I would suggest you collect your grimoires as soon as possible and then return again. The matter is urgent and I assume you do not want to get on my bad side. Do you see the point?"

Maisie gulped visible, nodded and placed the portion back in its box. "I'll be back tomorrow. Promise."

Katerina stepped in her way as Maisie headed for the door and smiled dangerously. "Let me be a little clearer as polite Elijah. If you don't return tomorrow, I will hunt you down and then you will know me. Just in case I die before I'll find you, Nadia will gladly step in. And trust me, you shouldn't underestimate her soft spot for guns. So a) you better hurry and b) you better do a good job. You understand? Good."

"I should accompany her", Nadia said, glaring towards Maisie. "To make sure she won't be idle. Just grabbing my Berretta, then we can go. I'm the one with the guns by the way." Almost playfully she winked at the witch. "The both of you are alright until tomorrow?"

"No harm will come to Katerina", Elijah seriously said. "I trust you can deal with Maisie if needed?"

"Don't worry. I won't even need my gun to show her who's running the show." Nadia almost seemed delighted by the prospect of being able to use her gun again; it had been a long time since she last could play with them.

Maisie waited in the salon, closely watched by Elijah and Katerina. She seemed to have realised to have lost the upper hand. Elijah adjusted his cufflinks and stepped in front of the witch. "You have heard enough threats to be sure we are serious about the consequences if you make the wrong choices. Do not forget that you are dealing with an original vampire. We are not easily betrayed. Those who choose to do so come to regret their actions very soon."

"I got it, okay? Don't get your knickers in a twist, I'm coming back with all my stuff and then go straight to work."

"It's not like you have a choice, darling", Nadia said smilingly, stepping back into the room. "Can we go? We don't want to dally, do we?" She grabbed Maisie by the arm and pulled her towards the front door. "See you tomorrow! Don't do anything I wouldn't do." With a boom the door fell shut.

"Does this Joan not have any other descendants? This girl is cheeky and I really don't like her work ethic." Katerina flopped onto one of the armchairs and grimaced. Witches weren't anymore what they once supposed to be. "For whom was this potion anyway? Your Tatia?"

Elijah put his hands into his pockets. "No. Tatia was long dead then. I had the potion being created for you."

"For me?" Katerina blinked in surprise and straightened up.

"Of course for you!" Elijah seemed beside himself with impatience, running his hand through his hair. "I knew from the beginning that Niklaus planned to sacrifice you, so I worked soon enough on a plan of my own. That's what I meant when I said you could trust me. You would have drunken the potion before the ritual and would have woken up a short time later, still a human. But you ran away and turned yourself into a vampire."

"I didn't know", Katerina said quietly and examined him closely. "Back then I barely knew you and with all those people lying to me I couldn't be sure that you really wanted to help me. I heard you in the woods later that night when you led the searching party. You sounded so angry I decided better not cross your path. Trevor helped me and led you another way."

"Yes, and he paid for betraying me. I was angry, Katerina. Angry you didn't trust me, that you thought me as maleficent as Niklaus." Elijah took a deep breath. "This is not the right time, I'm sorry. I got carried away. We can discuss this after we solved your current problem."

Katerina stood up and crossed the distance with a few steps and laid hesitantly her hand on his cheek. "I made mistakes, not only a few. That certainly was one of them. But I think you got back on me when you detained me in that tomb."

"I only intended to scare you. I still was angry enough to yearn for this small revenge, but I would never have turned you over", Elijah objected. "But before we could have a serious talk, you made them stab me and therefore released the compulsion. And you ran. Again."

"Old habits die hard." Katerina shrugged and smiled playfully. "Back then in the gardens you never complained."

"Back then in the gardens there weren't many possibilities where you could have hidden. Do you have any idea how often in the past centuries I only missed you for a heartbeat? There were moments when I was so close to finding you" Elijah sighed and leaned into her touch. "You know… Sometimes I found you on the bench in the remotest corner and you were lost in thoughts. Startled, when I spoke to you, as if you expected to be all alone in the world. I always wondered what could be on your mind to make you look so melancholy."

"I never told you?"

"No, but I never asked either. I didn't want to push you, afraid of scaring you away", Elijah quietly admitted. "I understand that you were frightened by Niklaus. I could see it whenever he was in your company. I only didn't want you to look at me the same way. I couldn't have stand it."

"You could ask now, if you want to. Maybe you would regret it if you didn't ask me while you had the possibility. If we haven't found a solution within three weeks-"

"We will find a solution. Do you hear me? I won't let you die, not this time." Elijah gently cradled her face in his hands, caressing her skin with his thumb, testing the softness of her hair, the suppleness of her lips, before he softly kissed her. "You could have called me, when you knew what was happening to you. Why didn't you?"

"Because after Willoughby I didn't knew what to do with you. I was so mad at you, you can scarcely imagine. You made your priorities clear and I didn't want to feel the disappointment of your rejection, when again you would choose Klaus over me", Katerina explained. "That really would have killed me, Elijah. Learning that even on my deathbed I only was second choice."

Elijah released her with a groan and turned aside. "Niklaus is my family, he needed my help. If I wasn't there for him, who else would be? I couldn't let him down."

"Hey." Katerina grabbed Elijah's hands, forcing him to face her. "We've had this discussion way too often. Not now, okay? Let's wait with that until I'm strong enough to break your neck when you're annoying. I only answered your question and I think, you wanted to ask something else."

"Fine." Elijah sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "Back then, what did you think of in the gardens?"

"Do you know why I came to England in the first place?" Katerina asked instead of answering directly.

"I learned that your father wished to marry you to some English noblemen", Elijah stated, looking confused.

"That's barely the full story." Katerina shook her head. "When I was sixteen, I met Hristo. He was an adventurer who already travelled half Eastern Europe and spent the winter in our village. My father disliked him at the very first moment which made it only more exciting. He was a Traveller, like my father, and I guess that was the reason he rejected him. Father hated magic and I never saw him practise any nor did he explain anything to me or my sister what we could do with those powers if we only discovered and trained them. Anyway, Hristo courted me and silly girl that I was, I believed he truly loved me."

"Did he hurt you?" Elijah's voice was quiet, but so only more dangerous. Almost as if he would travel back in time to kill this man himself. It made Katerina smile briefly.

"Not in the way you may think. I let him in my bed by choice." She grew quiet for a moment, dwelling in memories. "Some weeks later I noticed I hadn't bled. Of course mother knew what was going on, but she agreed not to tell Father so I could talk with Hristo first. He didn't remember promising to take me with him when he would leave nor that he would marry me. He even denied having ever slept with me. The next day he was gone. Father was furious and I think he would have beaten me bloody if Deniza hadn't stepped in. My little sister was a sweet thing but she never knew when to be silent. She caught a lot of what was reserved for me, but she never cried once. Mother finally stepped in to get Deniza outside; she wasn't the one who had disgraced the family."

Elijah didn't comment, only gently squeezed her hand to encourage her. He sensed that there wasn't anything he could have said. Back then it had been a terrible thing if a girl gave herself to a man before the wedding night. Still, he couldn't imagine the Katerina he knew to do anything else that she wanted to. Stubbornness seemed to be an essential part of her even then.

"So I got locked-in while I carried the child to terms", Katerina continued. "It was the most terrifying night I ever lived to see, but eventually my daughter was born. She was beautiful and crying at the top of her lungs. My father snatched her away before I got to hold her once and sent me on a ship towards England."

Elijah gently pulled a strand of hair behind her ear. "I am sorry. It must have been terrible for you and you never once said a word. Keeping such a thing a secret must have been anything but easy. Did you look for her after you fled?"

"Yes. I found my family and the rest of the village slaughtered, but I knew Father hadn't given her to any family there. So I searched on. I never found her. I could only hope that she was alive and well and loved." Katerina paused, leaning into Elijah's touch. She had missed him. Since he left her in Willoughby there hadn't been a day where she hadn't been thinking about him. Wondering if he had been missing her, too. "As it came to be, she was raised by Hristo and his wife. I don't know how my Father found him, but at least he was noble enough to take care of his child."

"How do you know? I thought you didn't find her?" Now Elijah was confused. Had Katerina used one of her many contacts? Someone who knew someone who knew someone? Or did she consult a witch to answer those questions?

Katerina smiled the tiniest bit. "I didn't. But she found me a few weeks past. And I think she turned out great. I only held a shotgun once but I can understand why she likes firearms."

Realisation slowly hit him and Elijah blinked in surprise. "Nadia? Nadia is your daughter?"

Well, now the cat's out of the bag. What do you think, how will it work out? For all those who are looking for smut in this story: for the next chapter I planned some hot moments between Katerina and Elijah (now that Nadia is out of the house *cough*). So let me know what you think of this chapter, some reviews usually spur my muse on ;)