A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews! It really does mean so much to have your input and to hear about how you respond to the characters and their actions. Some of your concerns were already being addressed in my mental plans while others gave me food for thought and will be addressed in later chapters. Please keep reading.

This chapter is short and sweet, I will go more in depth in later chapters.

Also coming up in later chapters, I'm excited to see two young vampires going to New Orleans with a much more populated vampire community. I think the gang will start to realize that even though their shared history is unique, they're still small fries in the grand scheme of things.

Elijah watched from the sidelines as Katerina once again made her weekly donation. It had been three weeks since Klaus had accompanied the doppelganger to their New Orleans home and the eldest brother still hadn't found a way to separate his former lover from this situation.

In the time that she had been occupying their house Elijah had consulted his own group of witches as well as keep a close eye on Niklaus. Running seemed to be the only choice but that would ensure his brother's rage would ignite a lifelong war between them, and as immortal beings a lifetime could last thousands of years.

Turning Katherine was not something that Elijah was prepared to do.

Klaus sat in front of his computer, wishing he was with Caroline at that very moment. He wrote the e-mail as if it were for her eyes only before hitting backspace and replacing it with something short and sweet.

She lives. Terms of agreement being met.

"That's all he said," Damon asked.

"It's enough for me," Elena responded. "At least, it's enough for right now. Besides, New Orleans isn't that far away."

"Are you really that interested in what happens to her? Let's not forget everything she's done."

"I've forgiven you for everything you've done," she pointed out and watched him roll his eyes; interrupting him before he could argue, "like killing my brother. He might have been wearing the Gilbert family ring but you didn't know that at the time. Besides, she can't hurt me anymore. She no longer has any power over me."

Damon pulled her into him, kissing the top of her head. He would never let anyone hurt her again.

"Seriously," Caroline asked. "You want to do what?"

"I want to go pay Klaus a visit," Elena said as she walked arm in arm with her only surviving best friend. "Not now; I don't want to step all over Klaus's toes and annoy him, but eventually I would like to check to make sure that our agreement is being upheld. If that original pain in the ass goes unchecked he could do whatever he likes to her and I want him to know that we will be keeping an eye on him."

"Uh," the blonde groaned. "How far away is eventually?"

"Well, I would like to go before we start school. I just can't believe you're going off to Richmond while I stay behind and start community college. That's what I get for blowing off applying."

Caroline laughed at her. "It's not like you have all of time to do whatever you want; study whatever you want...oh, wait," she teased her friend.

"Okay, I get it," Elena finally lightened up. "You know, New Orleans is notoriously crazy fun. We can go before school starts and stay for awhile. It might be fun to check it out."