Previously on ATCL: "I'm human, and I'm dying."

The three Mikaelsons had very different reactions to Katherine's bombshell. Elijah was frozen, his mouth slightly open and his eyes fixed upon Katherine. Rebekah was ranting and raving to the world about how "the biggest bitch on the bloody planet got that damned cure and it just wasn't fair".

"Silence, Rebekah!" Klaus ordered, before sitting in an armchair, one foot resting on his knee as he lounged. Elijah stood to his right while Rebekah pouted over to the sofa. "Please, continue."

"It was the night of graduation. My doppel—" Caroline cleared her throat, and Katherine shot her a look before continuing. "Excuse me. Elena and I got into an altercation. It ended with her catching me by surprise and shoving the cure down my throat. After I spent a summer figuring out what the hell I was supposed to do, I came back to Mystic Falls only to find that Silas wanted me."

"I thought you all took care of Silas." Klaus directed at Caroline, who was leaning against the couch arm.

"We thought we did. It turned out that when Bonnie died to bring Jeremy back to life, her spell keeping Silas down broke." Caroline shook her head slightly.

"Your friend is dead?" Klaus asked, looking at the blonde as if he was worried that she would melt into a puddle of tears.

"Not anymore. Damon made a deal with Silas to get her back. But that comes a bit later in the story. Hurry up! You aren't even at the good part yet!" Caroline gestured for Katherine to continue, and she did.

"Right. Anyways, it turned out that I was the walking, talking, cure once I was fed it. Lovely, no? Silas needed to drain me of blood so that he could become a witch again, destroy the Other Side, and die. After his absolute nut job of an ex-fiancée came back and started frying minds,"

"Stefan's to be exact. He's Silas's doppelganger!" Caroline chirped in, enjoying the baffled expressions on the faces of the other room occupants at that little tidbit.

"I was kidnapped, dealt with the flu, and fed to Silas. Talk about fun. Anyways…" Katherine paused, her eyes meeting Elijah's briefly before glancing away. She couldn't let herself get emotionally involved again. Not now, when she had only a few months left. "Shortly after Silas sucked the cure out of me, I started showing signs of aging. You know, grey hair, joint pain, that type of thing. I moved in with Forbes, here, at college," She waved in Caroline's general direction. "to cover up the fact that she and Elena are vampires. There, I talked to a doctor. The cure wants to return me to my natural state. And yes, I already tried vampire blood. I can't keep it down."

"Basically, in a few months, she's going to be a pile of dust. Now, she doesn't want that to happen, and quite frankly, since Katherine wasn't that bad of a roommate, I wouldn't mind her staying alive either." Caroline pushed off the arm of the couch and walked forward.

"Awww, glad to see you care, Forbes." Katherine mocked.

"You didn't try and steal my clothes, Petrova, so that automatically puts you in my good books. Don't read too much into it." Caroline shot back, nudging the other girl slightly with her hip. Their dynamic was of much amusement to everyone in the room as last time the Mikaelsons had been in Mystic Falls, these two hated each other. "Either way, we would like to make a deal."

"I would love to hear about it, Caroline." Klaus said. He had never seen Caroline so…brave, before. While she had an open invitation to New Orleans, she was well aware that Katherine most certainly did not, and it took guts coming here with the girl that turned her, just to help her. She truly had a compassionate heart that could see past anything. Now if only she could give him that chance.

"New Orleans is the place for witches, correct? And some are very, very, powerful?" She affirmed, already knowing the answer.

"Correct. Yet, couldn't the Bennett witch do the necessary spell?" He asked.

"Bonnie is the anchor between the Other Side and this one. She doesn't have magic anymore. That's why we're here." Caroline finished. Klaus nodded in understanding, even if he was really confused.

"The terms for the deal are as such: I am willing to give you one blood bag a week to make hybrids in exchange for the use of a witch to save my life." Katherine stood in a protective stance: her back straight, chin raised, and hands on her hips. And yet, her walls were down. Over the course of her years, being open with her emotions was something that she had not allowed. But being with Elijah had changed her, and now…she was undone in his presence. This situation was not safe for her heart, and yet Katherine went along with it anyways, for it was to save her life. Better to be heartbroken and alive than heartbroken and dead. "And for the remainder of my life, whether it be for a few months or for decades, I will have my freedom. That means no more chasing me, no more death threats, nothing. You have spent five hundred and twenty years holding a grudge because I chose to run instead of walk calmly to your altar. I think it's time we end this."
"You're very brave, little Katerina, to ask for something as beneficial to yourself as this." Klaus's mouth twisted up into his trademark smirk as his hands folded in his lap. "And very foolish. I could kill you right here and now, and not blink."

"The name is Katherine, as you are more than aware." She said, her hands shaking. "I may be human once more, but the little Katerina Petrova that you speak of died on the 6th of April, 1492 so please, do not patronize me with your subtle barbs. I do not appreciate the condescension. Now, do you agree to the terms or not? Because if you refuse, it's a fourteen hour trip back to Mystic Falls and Caroline has roommates waiting on her at Whitmore. If you don't accept, then I can go back to my previous plan of death by consumption of alcohol instead of slowly falling apart."

In that moment, Katherine Pierce looked strong. She had always been intimidating and fierce. Everyone knew that. But now, for the first time in five hundred and twenty years, Katherine had faced her demon. She stared the one who had sentenced her to a life of misery, to the one who had killed her entire family, to the one who had chased her relentlessly her for her entire vampiric life in the eye, and she gave him an ultimatum. Oh yes, she was afraid. She was very afraid. One would be stupid not to be afraid of Klaus. But she owed it to herself and her sanity to fight for her freedom, and so she did in the only way that she could; with her words. Her tongue was her weapon, and Katherine was a woman desperate enough to use every tool at her disposal.

"Damn it, Katherine, I told you that I am not going to let you give up that easily!" Caroline stood up, angling herself away from the Mikaelsons, her hands on her hips. She was infuriated. This girl—who had basically been the root of everything that had gone on in Mystic Falls since 1864 when she turned the Salvatores—was not going to be able to die that easily. She wasn't going to let her, because no one should spend five hundred years running only for it to end like this. "You've been a survivor for five hundred something years, and I'm not going to let a death sentence from psycho Dr. Maxfield send you on a suicide mission! I didn't get you drunk and kidnap you down here for nothing, okay? We are going to save your life."

"Why? Please explain to me why exactly you want me to survive so much! Your friends hate me. Hell, you yourself should hate me, or do you not remember when I smothered you with a pillow? Why do you want me to live?" Katherine threw her hands up in the air, pacing a bit.

Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah watched the two women with slightly bemused looks on their faces. Rebekah was just enjoying the entertainment. This was something that called for a bag of popcorn. It wasn't many days that you got to see Caroline Forbes try to convince a human Katherine Pierce to try and live.

Klaus simply enjoyed the idea that Caroline was in his house. In New Orleans. To be frank, when he had extended the invitation to New Orleans, he had hoped that she would have come—not with the intention to save the constant thorn in his backside's life—but because she wanted to be his Queen. At the same time, however, the fact that she was here and did not intend to leave was most certainly something to be savored.

Elijah's thoughts were all jumbled up. Katerina was dying. And she was human. Now that certainly was a surprise. Yet as she went toe-to-toe with Miss Forbes, he could not help but consider her as beautiful as ever. She had the grace and poise of whom she had been when they first met, yet she held a deadly air that came from her life experiences. Oh, one of his biggest regrets was leaving her. She had been right when she had said that it was their turn. But yet, at the same time, it had not been. The opportunity to bring his family together was too great to pass up. And he would always regret that she had to be left behind.

"Why do I want you to live?" Caroline repeated. "You have an opportunity here that none of us get! You can live a long and normal life, untouched by all of this supernatural madness. You can have kids again. I mean sure, I love being a vampire. I wouldn't have taken the cure if it had been offered to me. But there are some things that you can never have as a vampire, and you have the opportunity for them now." She finished with a sad and slightly exasperated look on her face.

"Did you ever think that maybe there was a reason that I didn't want the cure, Caroline?" Katherine asked, crossing her arms. "I don't want to be human. Having children? I had a child in 1491, and my overly-judgmental father ripped her from my mother's arms the second she was born. The last thing that I want is a baby, because every time one cries I am taken back to my childhood bedroom where I screamed for hours to just be able to raise her; to even hold her. But, you know, that wasn't traumatizing whatsoever." She breathed in, closing her eyes for a moment before letting it out. "Look, Caroline. You are a member of one of the strongest races of beings. You have the gift of a daylight ring. Your friends are immortal. Just go enjoy your existence, like I never had the opportunity to until it was too late." Katherine sighed, resting her hands on her temples. "The only reason I was even willing to go along with your ridiculous plan to save my life is because it isn't fucking fair that all those years of running are culminating in this."

"Katherine…" Caroline sighed.

"I'll be in the car, Forbes. I'm sorry that you drove all this way for nothing. Klaus won't agree to this anyways—not even for an army—simply because he will have the distinct pleasure of knowing that I'll be dying a slow, humiliating, torturous death in the end." She tossed her hair as she turned to Klaus. "And that's what you promised me back in Mystic Falls, wasn't it? A death that was worth every one of those years that I spent running? Well, congratulations. The little girl who ran has finally met her match. You can't run from time, now can you, Lord Niklaus?" With that, Katherine Pierce swept out of the parlor of the Mikaelson manor, the sound of the front door closing behind her an echo in the ears of the occupants of the room.

Elijah Mikaelson turned on his heel and followed after her.

AN: So this is the longest chapter thus far, and it was also the first time I wrote a chapter that was all in one scene. Then again, there was quite a bit of material to digest in here, so yeah. Bit of a cliffhanger, no? I have a tendency to end all of my chapters that way; it simply is more fun.

In upcoming news, next chapter will include the long-awaited Kalijah scene! Katherine has quite a bit to say to the man, and they'll start on a road of working out their issues. After much debate and rewriting, I can confirm that Hayley will be make her appearance in Chapter 5, and it certainly is a scene to wait for.

Next week's update might be on Thursday instead of Wednesday, because I'm not sure if I'll be able to update on Christmas. If I do get to do so, it will be late that evening. Just giving you all a head's up!

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

-Abi