Author's note: Important announcement at the end of this chapter, so keep an eye out for that when you finish. Enjoy!

5

Queen of the Underworld

Caroline had been dancing for awhile, frequently by herself, other times with random vampires who both looked scared to say yes but too scared to outright turn her down. Klaus wasn't watching either way and, he hadn't returned back to her. He was searching for someone, she could tell, and she thought it was probably Marcel. And, then, he finally found him.

"Elijah tells me you have a surprise," Klaus said, approaching his old friend. "For your sake, I hope you don't intend to make me wait. I'm already put out not knowing what you have going on."

"We had some new visitors in the Quarter today," Marcel said, sipping his drink. "I invited them to stay for awhile. I think it's time you said hello."

Across the dance floor, Caroline was watching Klaus follow Marcel with hawk eyes. She wanted to know what they were up to. Looking around the room her eyes landed on Gia and, it just so happened, Gia had been watching her. The brunette hurriedly looked away when she noticed Caroline, looking embarrassed and… did she see a trace of guilt? Caroline made her way over to her new friend.

Klaus was following Marcel past a locked door down to his holding cells. Klaus hadn't been down here in decades; who could he possibly have locked up? When they reached the bottom of stairs, Marcel brightened the dimmers on his lights.

There, in four separate cells, were none other than the Salvatore brothers, Elena Gilbert, and their little Bennett witch.

"Well, well," Klaus commented, dryly. "This is quitethe surprise, indeed, Marcel."

His rested on Stefan and his jaw locked. He couldn't help but to seethe. He wanted to torture him, slowly, in every way he could imagine.

Stefan wasn't a fool. He saw the shift in Klaus's demeanor. It wasn't a pleasant experience, when the Original Hybrid was clearly enraged and had every ounce of that anger directed towards you. He knows, Stefan thought.

"Where's Caroline, Klaus?" Elena demanded immediately, not intimidated in the slightest. She stood and walked right to the bars of her cell. Pressing her face out to glare at him.

He removed his eyes from Stefan to acknowledge her, stewing silently for a moment, thinking of his next move.

"Let's talk upstairs," he said to Marcel, "Leave them for now."

"Klaus!" Elena screamed after him. "Where is she?"

He didn't turn around, he just pulled aside one of Marcel's guards.

"The man in the last cell," he said. "Torture him, use vervain, but leave him alive."

"Hey, Gia, you all sure throw a great party, here," Caroline said, sidling up to the brunette.

Gia faced her with a forced smile. "Hey! Thanks, Marcel throws these all the time," she said. "I'm glad you're having a good time."

"So, have you asked Elijah to dance?" Caroline asked in a gossipy voice, flashing a friendly and joking smile.

"Elijah?" Gia asked, practically spitting out her drink and sputtering for a moment. "Uh no, I actually haven't even seen him."

"Oh, I'll keep an eye out for him," she promised. "I'm looking for Klaus myself. So, what was it that Marcel pulled you away for earlier? I was sad we didn't have more time to hang out."

Gia flushed and looked nervous. "Look, Caroline… I haven't been totally honest with you," Gia said. "Marcel needed my help with something… I'm sure it's why he's with Klaus right now."

"Gia? What's going on?" Caroline said, putting on the best mask of innocence she could muster.

"I work for Marcel, so I can't say anything," Gia said. "I want to tell you… Just go find Klaus. That's all I can say."

"Oh, okay… well, thank you," Caroline said and walked away.

Making her way away from Gia, she saw Hayley not too far away. As much as she wanted to get to the bottom of what was going on with Klaus and Marcel, she'd had another plan she'd been chewing on since earlier that afternoon. She walked over to Hayley.

"Hey, I think Elijah is looking for you," she said smoothly.

"What's it to you?" Hayley responded.

Caroline held up her hands in defense, acting like Hayley was being ridiculous. "I'm just relaying the message."

Hayley walked away, rolling her eyes. Smirking, she turned in search of Elijah.

When she found him, she put on her best face of distress.

"Elijah," she called out and he turned to her, concern immediately apparent on his features when he saw her distress.

"Caroline? Whatever is the matter?" he asked.

"Is there somewhere we can speak privately?" she asked.

He ushered her into another room, behind a closed door. It was a library and it was completely empty. Perfect.

"Klaus has just disappeared," Caroline said. "He and Marcel are up to something."

Elijah sighed. "Whatever it is Caroline, it may not concern you. And if it does, I'm sure Klaus will keep you informed."

"Please Elijah?" she asked. "My position here is very precarious… if you know anything?" She let the question dangle.

Elijah took a moment, clearly thinking it over.

"All I know," he said finally, "Is that Marcel said he has some sort of surprise for Klaus."

Caroline's curiosity was genuinely peaked at that one.

"Thank you Elijah. I'm going to go wait for Klaus," she said and he made a motion to follow her out of the library. "Oh wait, Hayley said she needed to talk to you. She seemed upset. I told her I'd find you. Wait here, okay?"

Before he could respond in any fashion, she had rushed out, closing the door behind her. The timing could not have been more perfect. Hayley was walking up.

"Is he in there?" she asked, shortly.

"He's all yours," Caroline replied and walked away, smirking once she was past Hayley. She rounded the corner and then waited. She heard Hayley open the door and walk in. Too easy.

"Oh, Gia!" Caroline called, a few minutes later, flagging the girl down. "You were looking for Elijah? He's in there." She pointed to the door.

"Great, thanks Caroline," the unsuspecting brunette replied and walked towards the door.

Caroline had no way to be sure that Elijah and Hayley would even be doing anything but she'd seen how they looked at each other. She had a suspicion that she'd just foisted upon them some of the only alone time they'd had together in a while — perhaps since Hayley's marriage to Jackson.

She lay in wait to find out.

The door opened again and Gia stumbled backwards. "Oh my God! I'm s-sorry," she called out and slammed the door. Making her way through the gathering with a stunned expression on her face.

"Gia?" Caroline asked in the most concerned voice she could fake. "What's the matter?"

"I have to go," was all she said. "I'll see you later Caroline."

"Will you be okay?" she called after the girl. She didn't respond. Caroline smiled smugly.

Elijah emerged from the room, glancing around wildly in search of Gia. His eyes landed on Caroline and narrowed. Caroline put on a mask of innocence and went to find Klaus.

Klaus had joined Marcel on the second story of the house in Marcel's personal study.

"They've come to turn her humanity back on," Klaus said.

"That would seem to be the case," Marcel agreed. "But doesn't that put you all on the same mission?"

"It very well does not," Klaus growled. "I thought I might need them, but it was going to be a last resort. Caroline turned her humanity off because of Stefan Salvatore."

"Unrequited love?" Marcel asked.

"That's the prevailing theory. She won't say and they won't tell us anything," he said.

"Well, what do you want to do with them?" Marcel asked.

"We can't just let them go, they'll stop at nothing till they bring her back with them," Klaus considered. "But we need to turn her humanity back on."

"One of them could be her emotional trigger," Marcel suggested and Klaus inclined his head in agreement. "Stefan Salvatore… could be her emotional trigger."

"Yes, Marcel, I bloody well understand that!" he snapped.

"Klaus, what I'm asking is… if that's a possibility, would you prefer her with her humanity off or on and with Salvatore?" Marcel asked. "Because we can always kill him."

Klaus considered this. "I don't know."

"Even if Stefan could get her to turn it back on, he'd need time with her, time alone," Marcel mused. "We don't necessarily have to let that happen. We could show her her friends, see if anything is triggered… if it doesn't work, we lock them back up and see if having them imprisoned for awhile stirs any feeling in her."

"She'll be pissed, if we do that, and she turns it back on," he said.

"Do you have any other ideas?" Marcel asked. "Besides when she turns it back on, she's going to have a lot of other problems on her mind… mostly about what she's done."

Klaus could see his point and he truly didn't know what to do with Caroline's flock of friends otherwise.

"Bring them up here, keep them bound, tight security but only the people you trust," Klaus demanded and left the study to return to the party.

Caroline had been around the party several times and still not found Klaus again. She was, however, very successfully managing to avoid either Hayley or Elijah.

"Something's up," Caroline overheard Jackson talking to a member of his pack. "Everyone's talking about something, like a fight just went down that I didn't know about."

Caroline couldn't resist. She turned to him like she had the juiciest bit of gossip, "I heard that everyone saw Gia leave after catching Elijah with Hayley!"

Jackson's face crumpled. "Elijah and Hayley? What were they doing?"

"Well," Caroline laughed, "I'm sure you can imagine." She actually had no idea what they'd really been doing. It could have been nothing for all she knew but she sincerely doubted that after seeing how upset Gia was. Jackson had balled his hands into fists. "Ohhh right… you two are together now? Ouch," she lamented to him.

He ignored her and pushed past her in search of Hayley. And then, finally, across the room she spotted Klaus, coming down from a flight of stairs. Well, that explained why she couldn't find him amongst the throngs of people at the party.

"Where have you been?" she asked, walking up to him. "I've been hearing lots of rumors," she intimated.

"Rumors?" Klaus demanded. Everything would change if she knew already.

"Elijah said Marcel had a surprise for you?"

Bloody Elijah. He'd have words with him later about keeping his mouth shut.

"I was surprised, not in a good way," Klaus said. "And unfortunately, I have to show you. Come with me."

Caroline took his hand and he began to lead her up the stairs. Well this was interesting. They walked down a long corridor that opened onto a balcony overlooking the party below. They walked past until they were in a more private part of Marcel's upstairs and he opened a set of french double doors, opening his hand to gesture her into the room first.

There, hands bound behind their backs, and several of Marcel's army surrounding them, were Elena, Bonnie, Damon, and Stefan.

"Oh, Klaus!" she cooed behind her. "For me?"

"He didn't invite us here, Caroline. We came for you! We love you and miss you and we want you to come home," Elena began, right out of the gate as always.

"God Elena, I'm already sick of your voice. If you know what's good for you, shut the hell up, or I'll cut your tongue out," she snapped. Elena had been one of the first people she wanted to get away from after she'd flipped the switch. She had been glad she'd snapped her neck when she did. Elena was such a downer.

Caroline looked around at the rest of them, well aware that Klaus was monitoring her closely. Stefan had severe vervain burns across his face which she suspected was Klaus's doing, no huge surprise there. Damon had probably been dragged along by Elena. She paused on Bonnie.

"When the hell did you get back?" Caroline asked.

"Long story," Bonnie said. "I'd be happy to tell you about it when your humanity is back on and we're all on our way home."

Caroline snickered before turning back to Klaus and Marcel.

"Well, they came to get me, you caught them," she said. "What now?"

"What are you one of his lackeys now?" Damon asked, unbelieving. "Even without your humanity on, I never expected Caroline Forbes to take orders."

"There's a difference between taking orders and not giving a shit, you idiot," she snapped at him. "You're here to tell me to turn it back on. I'm not going to, end of story sooo… looks like you all got yourself caught for nothing."

"Are you sure Caroline?" Klaus asked.

She looked at him, her brows knit in confusion. Was she sure? Klaus made a sudden move and lunged towards Elena, gripping her chin in his hand and he wrenched her head sideways and let his fangs descend over her neck.

"My bite would kill her," he said. "Do you really not care?"

"Seriously? You too, Klaus?" she questioned, angry. "Why don't all of you just go join the Boy Scouts together!"

The door opened again and Elijah stepped in, surprising and momentarily distracting everyone. He looked shocked himself when he saw who was in the study.

No one could have said how it happened exactly, it was so fast. But in the second of distraction from Elijah, Damon had wormed out of his binds, dislodged himself from the grip of one of Marcel's thugs, and punched the man square in the face, knocking him out cold.

Bonnie let her power surge, incapacitating Caroline, Klaus, Marcel and his help, including the man holding Stefan. The affected vampires screamed and clutched their heads in agony. With the spell not directed at him, the newly released Stefan ripped free of his binds, smashed a chair next to him, and had Caroline wrapped in his arm with the broken leg of the chair directed towards her chest in just a few seconds.

The room grew silent as Bonnie backed off on her power. Klaus looked over at Caroline, stake pointed straight at her heart. The blonde was laughing, hard.

"Whoa-ho, I did not see that one coming from you Salvatore," she exclaimed. "Guess it's always been all about precious Elena all along. Why are you all even here?"

"Let her go Klaus," Damon said, eyeing Elena. Stefan was playing a good game but he and Elena knew he wouldn't hurt Caroline. If anyone was going to have to actually play out this transaction with Klaus, it couldn't be Stefan.

Unfortunately, Klaus called their bluff.

"He won't do it," Klaus said, but he didn't sound at all sure. "He wouldn't have come down here for her if he was still in love with Elena Gilbert."

"Elena is still my friend," Stefan improvised. "And if Caroline is really refusing to turn her humanity back on, she's better off dead."

"Ahh, no no no. Maybe if you were still the ripper, I'd believe that," Klaus laughed. "But not good-hearted Stefan Salvatore. In either case, it doesn't appear Caroline even has an opinion on whether I kill Elena or not so-"

"Uhhh, I wouldn't say that," Caroline said.

"As much as I adore your ruthless nature, darling," Klaus said, "I don't need the town of Mystic Falls trying to come after me for vengeance. I left that place because I was tired of its petty dramas."

"Hmm, I understand," Caroline said genuinely. After all, she'd wanted to get away from them too. And the people of Mystic Falls were like a freaking Hydra. Cut off one head, a dozen more came after you for revenge.

With that he dropped Elena who rushed over to Bonnie and Damon without a moment's hesitation. Caroline expected Stefan to drop her as well, but he only pressed himself into her more tightly.

"A nice gesture, Klaus, but I'm afraid we're still gonna have to take Caroline with us," he said.

"Oh my God! When are you guys gonna get it?" she shouted at all of them. "None of you can tell me what to do! Okay? Not even at stake-point so, go to hell! Stefan isn't going to stake me anyway, he cares about me."

Everyone was staring at her so she forged ahead. "Look the humanity thing is just not up for discussion," she said. "But if we can all just part without the freaking drama, I promise not to cut anyone permanently off."

That was a lie. She was so pissed at all of them right now, she'd be happy never to see any of them again. She'd just stirred up the most satisfying trouble for Hayley. This was distracting her from getting to watch the spectacular results play out!

Luckily, something about what she'd said struck a chord and she felt Stefan's grip relax on her ever so slightly. She took the opportunity. Caroline whirled around the moment the stake was dropped even an inch lower than the location of her heart and she promptly snapped Stefan's neck.

"Now," she said, pushing back her ruffled hair from her face. "Let that be a lesson to everyone. That is what fucking happens to you if you put a stake to my heart!"

"Caroline he's in love with you!" Elena shouted in what was clearly a final, desperate bid. "That's why he came all this way to get you, he's been killing himself with the guilt over not telling you sooner."

"Get them out of here!" Klaus snarled shooting a concerned glare at Marcel.

Marcel and his boys began dragging all of them out of the room. Stefan, still dead weight, was being dragged sloppily behind, feet first, making sure his head would be hitting every step on their way down.

"Caroline!" Bonnie screamed from the hallway but the blonde just looked bored.

"Well that's going to interrupt the party," Caroline noted.

Klaus couldn't say he was displeased with her reaction. She certainly hadn't warmed up to Stefan in the slightest. But he was still uneasy. With her humanity off, it could just be becoming harder to reach her. He didn't know how she'd feel when it inevitably returned, yet.

When he looked at her now, he saw nothing.

Once they had made it back downstairs, Klaus pulled Elijah aside.

"Keep Caroline distracted," he ordered and was heading towards Marcel's basement before Elijah had a chance to respond.

"Gladly," Elijah hissed to his retreating form and followed after the blonde.

Once down to the basement, Klaus found the foursome safely contained in their cells again. Klaus looked to Marcel's men and waved them upstairs silently. Elena and Bonnie exchanged confused glances.

"This is gonna be good," Damon muttered.

"It would appear," Klaus said, clearing his voice uncomfortably, "That we need to come to some sort of agreement."

"An agreement?" Bonnie asked. "With you?"

"It may be difficult to believe," he responded, "But we all want the same thing. And that is for Caroline to turn her humanity back on."

"What? Are you joking?" Stefan, who was finally awake again, though foggy. He had to be imagining what he'd just heard.

"You want her to turn her humanity back on?" Elena asked. "Why?"

"My reason's are none of your concern, Miss Gilbert. Suffice it to say that I'm willing to work together with you all to achieve this end," he answered.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Damon said laughing. "No, I see what's going on here. Man this is good. We underestimated this guys. He really loves her."

"Damon don't goad him," Bonnie hissed.

"Listen to the witch, Damon," Klaus said. "You are, after all, locked up and surrounded by an army of vampires ready to tear each of you apart at my command."

"Duly noted," Damon said, sourly. "Though, you do realize that once she turns it back on she might not want you anymore?"

"Yes, Damon, I know! Thank you. Everyone seems incredibly keen to point out that caveat to me lately!" he snarled.

"Damon," Elena chided.

Klaus took a moment to collect himself.

"So, you all made this valiant trip down here," Klaus said. "What exactly was your plan?"

The group exchanged looks.

"We just have to find her emotional trigger," Elena said.

Klaus laughed without humor. "Easier said than done, apparently."

When Elijah caught up to Caroline, she had been seeking out Hayley or Jackson but neither of them were anywhere to be found. He grabbed Caroline roughly by the shoulder and forced her around.

"I know it was you behind that stunt earlier, Caroline," Elijah said, his voice hard as he glowered down at her. "What on Earth were you playing at?"

"Why Elijah, you're not making any sense! I haven't the foggiest idea what you're talking about!" Caroline said. "Besides, if you're off doing disrespectful things with married women, that's really on you."

She started to walk away but he forced her to turn around again.

"Caroline, you cannot try to break up someone's marriage for your own amusement," Elijah demanded. "And you've hurt an innocent woman in the process, one who thought she was your friend."

"Oh boy, look how guilt ridden I am about it, ahhh!" Caroline said, sarcastically throwing her hands into the air. "But really? Ruined a marriage, that bad, huh? So you were getting up to something with Hayley?"

"Listen to me Caroline, you might have really put yourself in danger here," he said. "If you've ruined this marriage, you'll have an entire pack of werewolves after you. Their allegiance is only to Klaus and his daughter, not to Klaus and you. Barely even Klaus."

"Hmm," Caroline said, nodding as if she was seriously mulling it over. "Nah, I really think it's all gonna work out fine for me. But thanks for the concern!"

Elijah let her bounce off this time, not caring any more about helping Klaus with his distraction plan. He was done with that girl for this evening and possibly the next few.

In any case, Klaus had now appeared back upstairs and was now seeking out Caroline.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked her when he found her.

Caroline craned her neck for one last scan of a feuding couple but sighed guessing they already left to fight it out in private. "Yeah, let's go," she said and let him lead her out by the arm.

Klaus waited until they had returned to The Abattoir to deliver his news. Caroline was slipping off her heels in the front hallway, bending a knee to rub a sore foot. He was struck for a moment at how normal the sight was, how he could almost trick himself into believing that this was a scene he would witness many times over in the future to come.

"Caroline," he called out, interrupting the moment. "I have something to tell you."

"What?" she asked, facing him while she unclipped her earrings.

"I've set your friends free," he told her. Her brows creased.

"What?"

"They've struck a plea-bargain of sorts," he explained.

"Of sorts? I'm gonna need some more detail on that," she said. She looked enraged.

"Apparently, news of Kol's passing has already circulated to Virginia," he said. "The Bennett witch thinks she can help to bring him back."

"Klaus, I understand that for some inane reason you and Rebekah feel like you need to bring Kol back," Caroline said, "Even though you're constantly daggering both of them every other day it seems like… But you know they're not going to let up on me while they're here."

"No, that's part of the deal," Klaus said. "They leave you alone and once Kol is back they're on their way. In exchange, they get their freedom."

Caroline considered this for a moment. "Alright, but if I even get the sense that anyone is trying to play me, you'll all regret it. Trust me."

"If anyone tries, I shall personally tear out their throat myself," he promised.

She pointed at him very seriously. "That goes for you too."

The next morning, Caroline had left the compound before he awoke for breakfast. It was still his natural response to feel the rush of instant anxiety but, he had to remind himself, he was learning trust with her. An exercise made all the more profoundly difficult thanks to Caroline's lack of feeling. More calming was the reminder that if she had gotten too far, he would have received a call by now. After Atlanta as well as the appearance of the Mystic Falls group, more Marcel's army were being stationed by the city borders.

But before she returned home, Rebekah had showed up. He'd spent a considerable length of time with her on the phone the previous evening, explaining everything that had transpired. The plan with Kol was a ruse to subtly try to awaken the real Caroline, yes, but there also was the chance that Bonnie could really help them. Klaus had left them with the promise that he would never interfere in Mystic Falls again if Bonnie should actually succeed. It was a big risk, especially considering if they did get Caroline back, she might want to return to Mystic Falls one day. And it'd be almost certainly impossible to keep his promise if Caroline was ever in trouble in Mystic Falls.

"Are they here yet?" Rebekah asked as she stepped through the door, "I've brought over a lot of the texts I've been working with for Bonnie to look over."

"No but they should arrive shortly," he said. "There's coffee on the patio. Caroline isn't here either."

Rebekah blinked up at him in shock. "You can't be serious," she said. "Caroline is gone and you're offering me coffee?"

"She'll be back," he responded, tersely, putting a decisive end to the conversation.

It wasn't much longer until the Virginia Saints arrived, sour-faced as usual.

"Where's Caroline?" Elena demanded as soon as she entered.

Klaus had to suppress a groan and Rebekah luckily answered for him.

"She should be back shortly," she said stepping up to them slowly. "I don't know if Klaus explained… I'm Rebekah. I'm, well, temporarily not in my own body, it's a-"

"Another problem you want me to fix?" Bonnie snapped.

"Well, we're always open to suggestions," Rebekah answered with a dry laugh.

"Let's just get started on Kol," Stefan said. "We should look like we're working when Caroline gets back."

And of course she came back making a huge scene. Klaus was grinding his teeth before she even opened the door; he could hear her and some boy guffawing on the walk up.

She stumble in on high heels, barely able to hold herself or the intoxicated young man up while they laughed. Even this early in the morning, it was unsurprising. You could always find people drinking at any hour in NOLA.

"Caroline!" he shouted, standing up and fighting the urge to walk over and violently shake her, "What is wrong with you?"

She laughed up at him. "I'm high as a Georgia Pine, baby!" she responded, and he rolled his eyes. Of course she was.

Sure enough, he glanced down to her hand where she was holding some hand rolled concoction; he didn't smell anything more distasteful than grass or tobacco, luckily. Over his shoulder she finally noticed the rest of the group with ancient texts spilled out across the table.

"Great, the Scooby Squad has arrived," she said. "Ha, that's actually a pretty apt analogy. Damon, you're Shaggy. Bonnie is obviously Velma cause she figures everything out. Elena is Daphne cause everyone has a freaking hard on for her and, Stefan is Fred. Cause basically all he needs to do is stand there and look pretty. There is no Scooby. Scooby's dead."

"Caroline, get this thing out of my home," Klaus ordered, gesturing to the drunk college kid and trying very hard to ignore the fact that she'd just referred to Stefan as pretty.

"Hey!" she objected. "I haven't eaten him yet!"

"W-what?" the boy asked, standing up straighter and slowly backing away. "You're going to eat me?"

Klaus groaned and grabbed the young man's shoulders. "Leave, forget you ever met this girl. Go home and sleep, when you wake up you'll think you blacked out and are hung over."

In a trance, the boy stood and left the house.

"Klaus! He was hard to get back here!" she complained, punching him in the arm to which he only smirked at her.

"Holy cow, aren't you two just the happiest… most evil couple on the planet," Damon joked dryly from the other room.

"We do sort of have a Morticia-Gomez thing going on, don't we?" she asked, almost entirely for the purpose of humiliating Klaus. He had closed his eyes and his hands were fisted tightly. Oh yeah, it was working. Now that she'd thought of it, she really wished she'd thought to yell 'You will rue the day you invited them into this house!' the previous evening.

"Seriously, Care?" Elena asked. "I know your humanity is off but hooking up with Klaus? That's just depraved."

"Hey! I have not slept with him," she defended.

"Really?" Bonnie asked, not believing her.

"Well, it's not for lack of trying…"

"Wait, what?" Damon asked. "He's not sleeping with you?"

"Well don't rub it in, asshole!" she shouted at him. Beside her Klaus was fuming and it made her feel a smidge better. Rue the day! she thought.

"Okay, I'm not really sure why we need to be getting into this," Stefan finally piped up, although he had to admit he found it encouraging to learn that she was basically just using Klaus for a place to crash.

"Uh oh, jealousy is already brewing!" Caroline trilled. "This isn't looking good you guys."

"Can we just get back to work?" Rebekah asked, interceding.

"You all are such bores," Caroline lamented. "Come get me when Klaus and Stefan are about to have their first pissing contest." She said and made her way out onto the patio in the middle of the compound.

So that was one of my shorter updates but, that was a good end scene for a chapter. If I'd pushed on to my next planned scene it would have gone way longer than I'd like for a single chapter. But hopefully it will be up tomorrow! Encouragement from you all is always appreciated. :D Huge thanks, especially, to readers who've checked in with me to leave a note multiple times. Love following your guys' thought processes on all this as the story progresses!

Just a note on my replies to reviews… if it's a question important enough to warrant an explanation for everyone I'll post the response here. Otherwise, questions will be private messaged.

And, the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: It's not that big, you knew it was coming. I plan to bump up the next chapter to an M rating, so if you've been keeping up with this story just by browsing the main TVD page, now would be the time to follow to keep getting updates. Hope everyone is excited!