A few days later I moved back in with the Mikaelsons, accompanied by a small group of Marcel's vampires. Marcel had selected the vampires to join us and I'd been allowed to pick from them who would be my 'personal bodyguards'. I didn't like the idea of having vampires follow me around but Elijah was insistent and he said that they'd stay out of sight. It was more for their own peace of mind.

Now that I was settled in and I had no secrets left, I decided it was to do some serious fence mending. I'd repaired my relationship with the siblings (with one notable exception) but I'd been neglecting my own friends. I'd been so scared of how they'd react but I couldn't live in fear. It was time to open up.

I went to Elijah. He had assumed the role of the leader in the household and even though I was pretty determined to go through with my plan, I felt like I needed to ask, or at least inform him. Rebekah was sitting with him which pleased me since I was sure she'd agree with me.

"Elijah," I began.

"Elena."

"I want to have a dinner party."

"A dinner party?"

"Yes. I want to invite my friends from Mystic Falls and have them over so I can explain everything."

"Why…?"

"Because you essentially abducted me from town and they thought I was dead for months. They're my friends and they deserve to know what's going on. And believe it or not, I get along with my brother and I would quite like him to know my children!"

"Which friends…?"

"Jeremy obviously. Bonnie, Caroline, Matt, Tyler I guess… Alaric if he wants to come."

"No Salvatores?"

"Well, I'd like to invite Damon since he's been taking care of Jeremy. And even if I don't invite him, he'd probably just come with Jeremy anyway. Not so fussed about Stefan since he took a chunk out of my neck at the last dinner party." Elijah looked at Rebekah.

"You have to admit, her friends have proved to be quite resourceful in the past. And we did hijack her life." Elijah considered this before nodding.

"Alright. But you have to arrange it. Just tell me when you want to do it."

"Thank you!" I gave him a kiss on the cheek and scampered off to my room. I grabbed my phone and dialled Jeremy. He picked up on the first ring.

"Hello Elena."

"Hey Jeremy. Would you be up for a trip to New Orleans?"

"You finally ready to come home?"

"No, I'm actually having a dinner party. And I want you and all my Mystic Falls friends to come." There was silence for a moment.

"Is this an April fool's joke?"

"What? No. This is serious. Would you be up for it?"

"Yeah… I miss you." I smiled.

"I miss you too. I was thinking the 11th? Does that sound good?"

"Sounds good to me. And gives me plenty of time to try and convince the others to go." I laughed.

"I appreciate you intervening on my behalf. I'm going to send them proper invitations but I didn't have your new address."

"It's cool. I'll see you on the 11th. I can't wait. Oh… hold on, is Damon allowed to come?"

"Well I figured knowing him he'd just follow you there anyway. But Elijah said its fine."

"So you're back with them? I didn't want to ask."

"Well I am carrying their child. Children. But there's no Klaus this time. And most of the others are reasonably well behaved without him around."

"Okay…" He didn't sound convinced.

"I promise it'll be fine. Please Jer, it's important to me."

"Okay. I'll be there."

We said our goodbyes and I hung up. I set about making preparations. I knew ten days weren't needed but I wanted to make sure every detail had been thought of so there was no risk of anything bad happening. Well, except for Damon being there. I crossed my fingers and hoped that everything would work out.

I wrote out the invitations and slipped them into envelopes. I looked at them, running my fingers along the edges. Could I really do this? These were two separate parts of my life, I wasn't sure if they could work together. I got up and went to Kol's room, entering without knocking. He looked up from his des where he was working.

"You alright darling?"

"I'm not sure… I'm conflicted." I threw myself onto his bed with a huff. He came over and rubbed my back gently.

"What's up?"

"I want to invite my friends from Mystic Falls up here. But I don't know if it'll work… I don't know if I can have both."

"What do you mean?"

"Well there's them. And then there's you guys. And I love you all but I'm not sure if those things can go together." He stroked my hair gently.

"I can understand that. They're an important part of who you are and I know we'll try to get along with them if they do the same. But you have to appreciate that it's going to be awkward and we'll never be friends."

"Yeah I know…"

"I think you should risk it. You can't spend the rest of your life just with us. I mean, you'd probably go insane."

"True. Okay, I'll do it." I sat up. He smiled.

"That's my girl. Oh and I have a present for you." He went back to his desk and retrieved a pile of papers. "These are all the spells I could find. There might be one that can help with your werewolves."

"You're the best." I kissed his cheek and got up. "I better go post these invites before I chicken out."

I left his room and ran down the road to drop off my invites. I glanced up and caught a glimpse of one of my guards skulking on top of a building. I rolled my eyes, posted the invites and made a show of walking back dramatically for my guards to see. Now all I could do was hope that the others would actually accept my invitation and come see me.

Given that I didn't have that much to prepare, I decided to spend the next few days reading through Kol's spells and see if I could find something that looked helpful. I hadn't told Marcel about my plan for the wolves, even though he probably could have told me who to talk to about breaking it. Since he'd ordered it be put in place, I wasn't confident he'd help me or support me if I tried to break it.

I searched through the papers. They were all written by different people and I wondered just how many witches Kol had known in his life. Most of the spells were small things, interesting to know and ones that I'd definitely revisit but not exactly useful for my current situation. I gave a frustrated groan and resisted the urge to hurl the papers at the wall. Elijah stuck his head around the door.

"You alright love?"

"Yeah, just not having much luck with these spells."

"I figured." He held up a leather book. "I've come to contribute."

"Is that your mother's?"

"No, it belonged to a… old friend of mine." I considered for a moment, recalling what I'd read in his journals.

"Celeste…?" He frowned.

"How do you know about Celeste?"

"I may have… found some old journals of yours. In my defence, I didn't know they were yours at first." I fetched the journals. "Here, you can have them back."

"I never thought I'd see them again."

"They were just left at the house that Mikael held me at. I also found a violin in the same room… is that yours too?"

"It is."

"I didn't know you played."

"I haven't in a long time." He hesitated. "Did you bring it with you?"

"I did." I retrieved it for him. "Here."

"Thank you." He took it and handed me the book. "I hope this is helpful."

I smiled and returned to my bed. I flicked through Celeste's grimoire. It was a lot more detailed than the few scraps Kol had managed to gather for me, pages filled with her neat handwriting. I recognized it now from some of the letters I'd found before. Most of it was also written in French, which was somewhat problematic but there were a few neat diagrams which, coupled with my minimal French skills, gave me the basic understanding of what was going on.

Malédiction d'inversion de pleine lune.

The words caught my attention. Lune, that meant moon, right? I continued down the spell, searching for any other words that might indicate I had the right spell.

Ce sort est d'inverser la malédiction du loup-garou, les lier comme le loup aux phases de la lune et leur permettant de reprendre la forme humaine à son sommet.

Reversal of the werewolf curse. So this would be the spell that had been cast on them in the first place. Which meant, in theory…

Antidote pour les personnes affectées par un sort de renversement

Bingo. There didn't seem to be many steps, just a list of ingredients along with a few pictures to help identify what I needed. Seemed easy enough. I smiled. I could do this. I translated as much of the list as I could, my heart sinking with each ingredient. These kinds of things weren't stuff I could find in a normal kitchen. I'd have to go see the witches to try and get these. This was going to require someone going with me, I could already see it.

I wondered if I could just sneak out. They'd probably want to know where I was going. Hmm…

I left my room and went downstairs, heading briskly for the door.

"Where are you going Elena?" asked Finn.

"Going to the witches to do some shopping! See you later!" I dashed for the door, glancing back over my shoulder. I collided with something solid and saw the three brothers lined up in front of me. I groaned. The guards had gathered in the courtyard, hanging back.

"I thought we agreed I could come and go?"

"There is a different between coming and going and marching into the place where you were attacked."

"Yes if I didn't do the last one I would never have come back here after what you did Elijah."

"Don't change the subject. You are not going there."

"And what would you have done if I'd said I was going somewhere else and then changed and gone to the witches."

"I would have been notified by your security." I let out a frustrated cry.

"I knew it! You can never let me do what I want, you have to make my decisions for me! I'm sick of it! I agreed to come back here because I care about you but if you start treating me like a prisoner, I will disappear. I'll leave this city and I will go far away and I will make sure none of you ever find me."

We squared off with one another. I refused to be intimidated by him. He didn't move.

"This is ridiculous. You're acting just like Klaus!"

"Do not compare me to my brother!" he snarled.

"You are! You are just like him! You think you know best and no one else's opinion even comes close to you, the great and all-knowing Elijah!" A sharp breeze blew through the courtyard, the gate rattled.

"I know I said that you wouldn't be a prisoner Elena but if you keep this up I will have no problem in locking you away for your own safety!"

"You wouldn't dare!"

"Elena maybe…" Finn started.

"NOT A GOOD TIME." The wind whipping around the courtyard grew stronger. Several of the vampires muttered nervously. The gate banged loudly as it shook.

"Elijah maybe you should…" Kol began.

"Be quiet."

We glared at one another. I clenched my fists.

"I will not spend my life cowering in a tower afraid of what the witches might do to me!"

"Witches are dangerous Elena!"

"Of course they're dangerous! So are vampires! But you're fine with their danger when you're screwing them!"

"I am capable of protecting myself, you are a child and you are not!"

"Oh I can't protect myself?" I raised my hand and Elijah was thrown backwards, colliding with the gate. "WATCH ME" I advanced on him. "I have survived everything that has been thrown at me. I defeated Mikael by myself. I stopped you from killing me and I brought you back to the light and if you do not back down Elijah Mikaelson, I swear to whatever god cares to listen that I will send you right back to the darkness and let you rot there! You are not my father, you are not my brother and you are not my husband, you do not get to tell me what I can and can't do!"

"You really think your cheap magic tricks are going to be able to defend you against a real threat? Those witches have been practicing years and have the power of centuries of ancestors behind them!"

"Shut up!" I felt a stab of pain in my stomach and I doubled over. Kol darted to my side.

"Both of you need to stop this, it's not healthy!"

"I agree. You're so worried about protecting her but you're hurting her," Rebekah growled at Elijah. "Kol and I are taking Elena out."

"You are not taking her to the witches."

"I am and you are not stopping us. I think we've all had enough of your ego trip for the day."

The two of them ushered me out of the courtyard, ignoring everyone else. The further we moved away, the more the pain in my stomach faded. I stayed silent until we'd gone a few streets.

"Thanks for that…" I said quietly.

"You need to be more careful. Using too much magic could hurt you."

"I didn't mean to use it. He just made me mad… and I couldn't control myself."

"That sounds like the vampire blood in your system. Your emotions are heightened. Everything even remotely negative becomes a fight or a tragedy." Rebekah rubbed my shoulder. "You'll adjust."

We walked to Witches Alley and towards Jardin Gris. Rebekah and Kol glared at any witch that came too close to us. We went into the shop and I showed them my list. As we were gathering herbs, I noticed the girl who'd been at the register during my last visit. She came over to me.

"Hey… I wanted to apologise. For what my friend said before."

"It's alright. I'm used to it."

"If I can help out in anyway, let me know," she gave me a friendly smile. "I know that a lot of the community aren't happy about it but… I'm on your side."

"Thanks. I don't suppose you could help me find these?" I showed her my list and she nodded. She helped us collect everything we needed and bagged them up for us.

"Good luck," she said. "I hope everything works out."

We took our bag and left the shop. I dragged my feet, reluctant to return home and have to deal with Elijah again. Sensing my hesitation, Kol gently squeezed my hand and Rebekah rubbed my arm. I sighed and hoped that the emotions would get easier to deal with.

When we got back, Elijah was skulking around the courtyard. I ignored him, I went up to my room and locked the door.

A/N: Sorry for the delay on this one. Next chapter we get the return of old friends :)