"Damon... I need to go home…" Rebekah protested when he pulled her in for another long kiss, it was hard resisting Damon, still she gently pushed him away after another series of kisses. "I have to get up early, tomorrow morning."

Damon gave her one of his smirks, whilst brushing her swollen lips with his. "Are you sure that I can't convince you to spend the night over?"

Rebekah laughed at him. "Nik will most likely invade your bedroom in the middle of the night, with a sharp stake in his hand."

"It's not like he did that during the other nights that you've spent here."

"I was a vampire back then, and things were very different for us."

"You and Klaus have a very dysfunctional notion of sibling love." Damon said before he leaned over for another kiss.

Rebekah stopped him with a hand pressing his chest. "I will see you tomorrow."

He followed her outside to her car and held the door for her.

She stopped before getting inside. "Are you spending the day again with Nik tomorrow? You two are acting like best friends now."

"Are you jealous?" He teased her.

She tossed her bag to the passenger side with a smile. "No, I'm enjoying this new friendship of yours."

"We are not best friends, but we've agreed to not attempt to put each other inside of a coffin for the time being."

"Like I said, best friends." She beamed at him.

"Do you have your eternity ring on you?"

She showed him her hand. "It's right there." She frowned. "Why are you asking?"

"Because you're driving home…"

She drove away with a fake laugh.

Damon smiled, watching her as she left.

He stayed in the driveway until she was out of sight, and when he turned around, he almost bumped into a grinning Stefan.

"Is there something funny on your mind, Stef?" He lost his good mood instantly.

"You're in love." Stefan followed him into the house.

"Are we going to start fighting over this one as well?" Damon asked, closing the door behind him.

Stefan started to prepare a drink for them. "What I had with Rebekah wasn't even a thing… it was just a typical 1920s vampire hook up."

Damon sat on the sofa with a sigh. "Good, I'm a little tired of fighting with you, over girls all the time."

Stefan handed him one of the glasses. "Speaking of which… I've decided to go away for a little while. If I ever want to start anything serious with Katherine, I need to get away from all the memories that I have in Mystic Falls with Elena."

Damon tasted his drink slowly. "I still don't trust her."

"I know, but she was there when I needed her, and I just want a clean start with her."

"I'm staying here." Damon knew that this was that moment when they parted ways.

"I'll be back before you miss me." Stefan assured him with a smile.

"Take care of yourself, Stefan and keep an eye on Katherine, that one is always hiding something."

Stefan nodded at his older brother, it had been a very long journey for both of them and it was hard leaving him now.

"Let me see it, Nik..." She asked him sweetly.

Klaus kept his eyes on the notepad in front of him. "It's not finished yet, Caroline."

"Yes, it is…" She whispered and glued herself to his back.

She rested her chin over his shoulder, so that she could see what he had drawn.

"Just because you decided to get dressed, doesn't mean that I was done."

Caroline giggled. "You were done an hour ago… you were just enjoying having me naked in front of you."

"Can't blame a mate for enjoying his muse." He smirked, but when Caroline tried to get a better look at his work, he pulled the paper to him and looked at her seriously. "I said that I'm not done yet, sweetheart."

Innocently, she smiled at him. "Your muse wants to see it."

"Patience is a virtue." He countered amused.

"Well, I have a lot of other awesome qualities." She moved her long eyelashes like only she knew how.

"True, and I love every single one of them, but I'm still not done with my work." He rested his eyes on her lips.

"Did you take all that time with your other French models?" She teased him.

Klaus showed his dimples. "Horses don't complain, love."

Caroline laughed loudly, and as she did, her hair touched her shoulders just perfectly and he was compelled by her.

Klaus leaned over when she calmed down and kissed her, Caroline answered his kiss while caressing his neck, it was a really long kiss and she smiled when he pulled away from her.

"Can I see it now?" She tried again.

Klaus finally showed her the drawing and she didn't blush, even if she was looking at a nude replica of her body, she liked posing for him now and sometimes she was the one to ask him to draw her, there was nothing like seeing herself through his eyes.

"I like the necklace." She said, loving the new addition to her artsy image.

Klaus smiled in that naughty way of his. "I love the model more."

"Are you going to un-dagger Kol soon?" She softly tried to sneak in her plea.

Klaus chuckled, for he wasn't that oblivious to her tricky ways. "He's safe as he is."

"But you can't keep him in there forever Nik."

"We've had this conversation every day for the last week, Caroline." He dropped the pad on the bed.

She smoothly brought her hand to the crook of his neck. "And you've given me the same answer every day."

"Before I took reign of things, he was a menace to the town, and you were upset because I didn't do anything about it. Now, you're upset because he's in the only place where I can have any control over him."

"I miss him…"

"You miss my brother Kol?" He asked her, unconvinced.

Caroline pulled her hand away from his neck. "This house is so hauntingly empty, and I hate it."

"So that's what you really miss…"

"Yes." She groaned. "I never had a real family and I kind of merged into yours, and just last year, this house was full of everyone coming in and out all the time but now it's so dead quiet that it's depressing."

"If, and may I stress, on the if part… If I wake him up, he's going to be perturbed and I can't tell what he will do, so I don't want you near this house if I do it."

Caroline smiled elated. "Thank you."

"I said if…"

But she knew better and leaned in for a deep kiss.

Their little idyllic moment was interrupted by Rebekah, when she heavily knocked on their door.

"Are you two decent? Or at least not having sex?" She yelled from the other side of the door.

"Are you entirely certain that you want to fill this house once again?" He asked Caroline, between little kisses that he was leaving along the side of her neck.

"I kind of miss Kol's snarky comments on our sex life." She giggled.

Klaus shook his head, watching her get up from their bed and bouncing to the door.

She opened the door smiling hugely at Rebekah. "Hello."

"Hey…" Rebekah returned the big smile. "I've received a message from our school, and we need to go in early tomorrow morning."

"School?" Caroline squinted.

"Yes, remember Mystic Falls High? The place we attend and occasionally do some stunts for the Cheerleading squad?" Rebekah tilted her head.

"I completely lost track of time… is summer already over?"

Rebekah sighed. "School starts in a few days, Caroline. I already used my charm with the sweet old lady at the school office, so you are all clear, you just need to swing by tomorrow and compel her to accept you for senior year."

"Will do." Caroline nodded firmly at her.

"They are also starting the cheerleader try-outs tomorrow and you and I are getting into that squad." Rebekah informed her unwaveringly, before leaving to her room.

Caroline closed the door of her room quietly, and when she returned to their bed, she gave Klaus a small smile.

"What's the matter, love?"

"Everything changed... how am I supposed to go back to school like nothing ever happened?" She was conflicted.

"You don't have to go, if you don't feel comfortable with it."

Caroline cuddled against his body, she wasn't the same girl who used to skip classes because she was confused over her feelings for Klaus, she was married to him now and Bonnie was a vampire while Elena, Matt and Tyler were all dead.

Everything was different, but it wasn't really that bad, just different.

She was happy now, like she never had been before and that happiness had a name, she sneaked her hand under his shirt and closed her eyes ready to fall asleep in the arms of her Nik.

Stefan was finished packing, so he moved the leather bag to the floor next to his bed.

He sat on the edge of the bed and picked up the book lying on the nightstand, inside of it there was a picture of him and Elena smiling happily.

All of that seemed so long ago, that he felt as if it all rushed by.

The time he spent with her hadn't been enough and he genuinely missed her, yet she was gone, and he was somehow trying to start anew with Katherine.

With that in mind, he closed the book and Elena's memory inside of it.

"I'm so excited for this year." Rebekah closed the door of Klaus's shiny black car with a beaming smile.

From the driver's side, Caroline smiled at her. "I can tell, it wasn't even 6 in the morning, and you were already banging on my door."

"It's going to be the best year ever." Rebekah was genuinely hungry for this.

"Let's do this." Caroline locked the car and brushed off the looks from the other girls in the parking lot, arriving to a cheerleader practice driving a shiny expensive sports car was definitely an upgrade for Caroline Forbes.

The girls made their way to the field where they were greeted by some familiar faces, they were the usual mean girls who didn't have anything going on, aside from their popularity competitions in high school.

Caroline had been one of them not long ago.

"Welcome back girls, I hope you all had an amazing summer." Kensi squealed cheerfully.

Caroline was bored already and started texting Klaus.

Have you undaggered Kol yet

Kensi kept on explaining the trials that Caroline knew by heart, this was a waste of time because she was going to be Captain anyway, not even Rebekah could take that title away from her.

Her phone vibrated with his answer.

I've already removed the dagger, so if you return home to a very dead husband, it's all on you, sweetheart

Caroline chuckled and replied.

At least I have your car to remember you by

Kensi noticed Caroline's distraction and was annoyed by it. She always had a thing against the popular girl.

She couldn't understand the hype around the blonde and was especially annoyed that she seemed even more up to fashion this year.

She easily named the expensive brands that she was wearing and that ring on her finger was just ridiculous, there was no way in hell that those were real diamonds, and she couldn't really tell what the other wide dark ring was, just that it was stunning, which only left her even more upset.

Kensi was taking notes of the girl's names and what position they were trying out for, and she stopped in front of Caroline with a scowl.

Everything that she was wearing was probably fake anyway, and then there were these silly rumors that she was now married to one of Rebekah's brothers… Please.

Kensi smiled and handed Caroline the pad. "Are you trying out for the base of the pyramid this year, Caroline? It's probably better, because you're most likely out of shape..."

Caroline looked up from the phone in her hands and faced the silly human, she pushed her sunglasses up, trapping her blond flawless waves and took the pad, she wrote her name and the position that she was trying out for and handed it back to Kensi with a smile.

Kensi looked down on the paper with a foul taste in her mouth. "Caroline Forbes Mikaelson. Captain." She read out loud. "I see… good luck then."

She turned her back on Caroline, clutching the pad angrily, so the rumors were true.

"How pissed is he? I don't heal like you guys, so I probably shouldn't even be in here." Damon asked Klaus as he tried to pick one of the bottles from the mansion's generous bar.

"There wasn't a single word from him. " Klaus chose his oldest malt and handed it to Damon. "I was expecting to have an epic fight but instead of going for my head, he thanked me."

Damon choked on his drink. "He did what?"

"Exactly." Klaus filled a glass for him as well.

"Maybe you've stabbed him one too many times and now he's sort of damaged?"

Klaus responded with a contemplative expression, because that was a possibility.

The sound of footsteps made them look back.

Kol showed up ready to go out after a shower, he was pulling his long sleeves up and smiled at the two of them. "I'm going over to The Grill, care to join me?"

"You're going to the pub?" Klaus asked, confused.

"Yes, I'm single now and I'm going out for a drink, so it would be nice if I had some company." He smiled again, before heading for the door.

Damon dropped his drink and followed Kol, he turned when he reached the door and mouthed at Klaus. "Damaged."

Klaus joined the wagon, convinced that Damon was right.

"And we are done here, dear." The old woman behind the desk told Caroline before handing her back her documents.

"Thank you." Caroline sweetly smiled at the woman.

The old woman sighed, looking at the copy in her hand and then smiled patronizing Caroline. "You're so young, sweetie..."

"Hummm, yes..." Caroline said not sure where she was going with this.

"And married already... were you a teen mom?" The woman asked sadly.

"Oh my God..." Caroline whispered.

"Is he in school as well? Everyone is marrying so early these days."

Caroline widened her eyes. "I have to go." She took off fast.

Rebekah was just leaving the gymnasium and the girls met in the hallway.

"You will never guess the latest gossip." Caroline chuckled.

Rebekah grinned. "That you're pregnant and that that's how you caught my brother?"

"Seriously?" Caroline threw her head back.

"The football team is doing their trials today as well, and I heard someone say that Tyler and Matt were gay and that they ran away together." Rebekah was amused with that particular gossip.

"Oh God… I forgot all about the fun part of school." Caroline checked her phone again.

"And I've learned of a party!" Rebekah said excitedly.

"Mmhm…" Caroline was focused on replying to a confusing text message from Klaus about entertainment and Kol, he always used such complicated words, although texting was supposed to be simple.

"It's happening tonight in the woods and it's sort of a goodbye summer festivity."

"And you want to go." Caroline looked up at Rebekah.

She flashed her best smile.

"I guess we have a party tonight." Caroline started texting Klaus to let him know.

Rebekah was happy but not entirely. "What will I wear?"

"To a goodbye summer party in the woods? A summer-dress." Caroline easily answered.

"It's my first time attending a party of the sorts and I need a new dress for it." Rebekah tried to capture Caroline's attention with her pleading tone.

"Right..." Caroline had to take this seriously, so she put her phone away. "I know the best store in town."

Kol was flirting with the girls by the darts. One of them asked him to teach her how to play and he used his flawless smile to accept the challenge.

"Ok, so he went from killing them to seducing them." Damon was genuinely confused.

Not more than Klaus was, with Caroline's messages, they expanded from iniquitous to something about a silly gossip and now she was mentioning a party.

It took a lot to keep up with Caroline's personality and all that bubbly and joyousness came out in things like a simple text message.

Klaus looked up, remembering that Damon was talking. "What was that again?"

"Your brother is working his way into a threesome." Damon asked for another drink.

Klaus looked at Kol, who was walking over to get a refill as well.

"Have you decided which one of them you're taking home?" Klaus asked him with a smile.

"Do I sense a slight reproach tone in your speech, Niklaus?" Kol confronted him. "I don't have a girlfriend at the moment, so I'm allowed to get involved with as many women as I wish. In fact, I should get back to it at once."

"Indeed, you should. After all, you're a free man now." Klaus agreed easily with him.

Kol grabbed his drink. "Thank you." He left with a smile.

"If he thanks me one more time, I will remove his liver." Klaus growled.

Damon laughed next to him. "He's not damaged, he's back in all of his glory. Your family is definitely screwed up."

Klaus didn't refute Damon's words at all, he was right.

Stefan tried Katherine's number again, it still went straight to voicemail and he was finding all of this strange.

He was finally ready to leave, but Katherine wasn't here, and that was odd even for someone who changed with the wind, like she did.

Katherine watched the car arrive at the meeting point with a growing concern, she couldn't wait to put as many miles between Mystic Falls and these lunatics as she possibly could.

"Good evening, Katherine." Eric was the first one out of the car.

She hated his smile because it held a lot of sadistic intentions behind it. "You summoned me again?" She tried to keep a playful tone.

"Not me…" He said as his eyes drifted to the car.

Katherine's breathing changed drastically, when the older man came out of the car.

The tall broad man with sandy blond hair was the one she feared the most, someone who made his adoptive son call him Master, was someone to fear like the devil.

"Katerina Petrova, Katherine Pierce… a woman of many names and outstanding beauty." His voice was deep, full of his ancient accent.

Katherine felt her stomach turn, how she hated all of them with passion. "What do you want with me?"

"I need a little something from you, sweetheart." He said with a smile.

"I'm done helping you." She said, determined. "I did my part. I gave you all the information you needed, and I directed that dimwit Vicki to Jeremy, it's not my fault that she couldn't convince him to bring his sister back."

The older man smiled and looked at Eric. "I guess she did everything she could then…"

Eric smiled and pulled a gun from inside of his leather jacket, he shot Katherine twice, before she had time to flash away.

She found it hard to breathe so the bullets in her chest had to be laced with vervain, it was going fast into her bloodstream, and she saw the Master looking down on her, before she lost consciousness.

"I'll just take that one last thing I need, sweetheart." He looked at Eric.

"How is it to be back home, Master?" He asked.

"I'm not a man of nostalgia, Eric. That's for the weaker people who like to hide behind those emotional trivialities. I'm here for Niklaus and once we leave this town together, we'll never look back."

Rebekah held the red cup for Caroline to fill with beer. "I love parties."

Caroline didn't need her to say that because it was all over her face, still she took a sip from her beer cup and looked around.

This was actually nice. It had been a while since she was around kids her own age.

Though the vision of most of them already half-drunk and sneaking into the woods to have sex, was slowly reminding her of all the things she wasn't missing at all.

"Do you think that they will be here?" Rebekah asked Caroline, already finishing her beer.

"Nik's words were, I will not go to a teenage party in the woods, because I will end up killing everyone out of boredom." Caroline even imitated Klaus's accent.

Rebekah laughed, handing Caroline her empty cup.

"Take it easy with the beer, ok?" Caroline asked. "I don't feel like carrying you home."

Rebekah decided to go mingle with the others who were enjoying drinking.

"Hi, Caroline." Kensi arrived without really smiling.

Caroline could tell that she was upset. "How did we do?"

"You know how well you did..." The green-eyed girl sighed. "Congratulations... on everything." She said dryly.

Caroline smiled, keen on spiking the girl. "It's going to be a really fun year."

Kensi couldn't disguise her disapproval. "Your competition this year is fierce, so I'd be extra careful not to make any mistakes, Caroline."

"Challenge accepted." She winked at her.

Kensi was uncomfortable with all that confidence and smiled awkwardly before walking away.

When she joined her little group, Caroline could hear the mean comments that started to fly.

"Who the hell does she think that she is, the queen bee of Mystic Falls High? I'm so tired of Caroline... she gets her hands in everything. And how did she convince one of the Mikaelson boys to actually give her a car like that? This is just so Pretty Woman."

"None of them are here so that has to mean something... she's probably some trophy to one of the older ones."

"I wouldn't mind being a trophy... have you ever seen them like... ten feet close? I thought I was going to faint when Kol smiled at me today."

"Yeah, but I think she's with the other one... the one who looks like a Greek God... he's super-hot and I have no idea how Caroline got her hands on that piece of ass."

"Well, I can think of one or two ways..."

Caroline quietly listened to the giggles and every comment and theory that they came up with, her life was different but high school was still the same.

She went from being the easy girl who got drunk on every occasion and embarrassed her mother, to being the super cheerful girl who annoyed everyone with her joy.

Now, she was at an entirely new level, she was envied and she was the girl everyone wanted to be. She had the perfect man and the perfect life that everyone craved for.

Not bad at all.

And it was about to get a lot better because she saw him and Damon arrive in all their holy swag, the wave of pride that came over her was incredible and something that she never experienced before.

That piece of smug ass, smoldering his way through the crowd of kids dancing around to blast out improvised speakers, was hers, all the girls were drooling and whispering silly things at him but there was only the woman he was looking at.

And he walked to her determined, showing every wannabe bimbo in this place that he belonged to one woman and that was Caroline.

He had heard the mean comments upon arriving as well, and he didn't like a bit that his sweet Caroline was now the object of such vile tongues.

"I have arrived." He smiled pleased with his own joke.

Caroline was beaming at him when she pressed his lips, it easily became one of those kisses that made her knees weak and every girl seer with jealousy.

Damon ignored the heated reunion and searched for Rebekah, only to spot her flirting with some random kid.

"I can teach you how to play beer pong."

Rebekah smiled at the cute guy. "That sounds fun."

Damon interrupted them by pulling the kid by his neck towards him and compelling him. "Go home."

"Damon…" Rebekah complained with a hand that she threw in the air. "Are you serious?"

"What are you doing?" He asked her with an eye on the competition.

"Having fun at a party, how about you?" She asked him with a peeking smile.

"I'm obviously lacking a drink to get into the mood."

"Here's my issue, Damon. You won't kiss me in front of my brothers and it's becoming a bit of a joke, so either you grow a pair, or I'll have fun publicly with someone else."

"Can you try to be less human? What do you want, for me to ask you to be my girlfriend?" He snapped.

She destroyed the red cup in her hand. "No, I want you to admit that you feel something for me, and I want you to be able to kiss me when someone else is around, when it's not just the two of us in a secret guarded location."

"You're crazy, Bekah." He scoffed.

"I just happen to know exactly what I want." She turned around to leave.

All too easily, Damon took hold of her hand and pulled her to him. "I really, really, really like you, that's all I can give you for now."

She smiled satisfied. "I'll take that for now."

Finally, he kissed her which caused another jarring moment at the party, a lot of hearts were being broken tonight.

The four of them didn't linger at the party, they were definitely in the mood to be alone, and all left under a distant look from Kol.

He was leaning against a tree, watching them, everyone was happy while he was gradually shutting down.

There was a girl who had been checking him out for the last ten minutes and he finally returned her gaze. He tossed his beer bottle away and smiled at her before disappearing into the woods.

She left her group of friends to follow him and walked for a bit but started to doubt herself because she couldn't see him anywhere and it was getting darker and quieter as she went further into the forest.

She was about to turn around, when he showed up with that enchanting smile of his.

"Hello, darling..."

"Hi..." She thought of how hot he was and how good he smelled.

"What's your name, darling?" He asked while moving a streak of hair away from her face.

"You can call me anything that you want..."

Kol's smile was sad. "Can I call you Bonnie?"

"Old girlfriend?" She moved her hand to touch his chest. "You can call me Bonnie... I don't mind... maybe I'll make you forget about her tonight."

Kol watched the girl attentively, but she was nothing like Bonnie.

She was pretty but Bonnie was stunning, she had pretty brown eyes while Bonnie had spellbound green eyes, yet tonight what he needed wasn't blood and when the girl lowered her hand and pressed herself to him, he kissed her roughly.

"Where did you leave the car? Back at your house?" Rebekah huffed at Damon.

Everyone started laughing.

"Right you are, to make fun of the human who is wearing high heels." She snapped.

"Who chooses high heels for a party in the middle of nowhere?" Damon asked.

"Rebekah." Klaus and Caroline answered from behind them.

Rebekah ignored them and complained some more about the distance she had to make to get to the car.

Caroline and Klaus walked behind them slowly in their own pace and language, he pulled her closer to him, his arm was around her shoulders, and she smiled at him.

Then suddenly, Rebekah wasn't complaining anymore, and Caroline looked ahead to a strange group of men in front of them.

"Damon... my favorite person in the entire world." Vicki opened the hostilities.

Damon was mostly annoyed. "What do you want?"

"I want to have a little fun. I've been trying this turning thing and it's exciting." She started to pace in front of a growing crowd.

Damon and the others looked at the restless newborns that were gathering next to the line of cars.

"They're just kids..." Caroline whispered, horrified that they all looked so young.

"Damon killed my original crowd one night, before setting them on fire." She glared at him.

"And then I killed you because your life was pathetic and tragic." He wished that she would just get over that. "I actually made you interesting and I wasn't the one who killed you as a vampire." He reminded her.

"Do you know who else is pathetic? The Original vampire turned human" She looked at Rebekah.

"My magic doesn't work but I can still kick your little skinny ass to another galaxy." Rebekah spewed at her.

Vicki laughed. "Oh, I'm not hanging around tonight. I sired a group of losers that I found smoking pot and they're all coming for your head. I've also made the game really interesting so they aren't all here, a few went home and will wait for the perfect opportunity to finish you off." She pointed at Rebekah. "It was awesome that you guys kissed because I had no idea you two were together so that was my bonus." She waved at Damon. "Who's tragic now?"

Damon was going to kill her, but she flashed away, and the kids stepped in.

Klaus was ready to attack when Caroline grabbed his hand.

"They're just kids, Klaus. You can't kill them."

"They're already dead, Caroline."

Caroline had a split second to decide, and obviously Damon wasn't going to stop them with snarky jokes.

"Caroline." Klaus pressed on, because he was going to do this anyway.

And she knew it, she was way far down that road, so she had to let Klaus go and looked away as he and Damon killed the newborns.

Rebekah joined her and they both stood behind the commotion, Caroline was keeping an eye on anyone that would get away but wasn't counting on the kid that sneakily came from under a car and flashed to the girls with some sort of weapon in his hand.

They were taken aback by surprise and Caroline hesitated because he couldn't be more than 17, she had to do something anyway and she was going to fight him when he was suddenly thrown in the air, all the way to the woods.

"Oh my God..." Caroline whispered when she saw the man in the tailored suit.

"Elijah..." Rebekah whispered, divided between her shock and her first tears.

He smiled at the girls warmly.

Rebekah and Caroline ran to him at the same time and hugged him with strength.

"I do expect those tears to be of happiness." He chuckled.

"Is it really you?" Rebekah asked emotionally.

Elijah kissed her forehead. "I'm really here, sister."

He then searched for his brother. "Hello, Niklaus."

They shared a look, it was a complicity so peculiar to them and when Klaus hugged him, Elijah placed his hand on the back of Klaus's head, as if he was trying to protect him, making up for all the times in the past that he didn't.

He wanted to say a million things to the man who was still a kid, a kid in love with horses, that always had black fingers from using coal to draw pictures that made everyone smile, when there weren't many reasons to smile.

Elijah wanted to say so much to him but there was only one thing that he wanted to say now. "I've returned, brother."