Alrighty! Let's start to get this moving along a bit. The first few chapters are going to mostly set up some stuff. There will be some information about Julia's life during the time that Klaus is not in New Orleans and such. I'll try not to keep the reunion too far off in the future.

Thank you for all the follows and favorites. I also really love your reviews and look forward to them. It's nice to hear what you guys think. So thank you!

I'm going to try to keep a balance here but I think the first few chapters especially are going to be mostly angst. Honestly plenty of angst will be had throughout but I'm going to try to put some cute and more fluffy things in as well. I do try to fit in requests if you guys have them and I can fit into the plot without it being too off the wall so you can DM me or tell me in the reviews if you have something you'd like to see.

Thank you again. Writing is pretty therapeutic for me so I really appreciate the support.

Okay then! Enjoy!

If you live long enough, and quietly enough, you eventually begin to fade into obscurity. Where I was once a known name among the supernatural communities of the quarter, I am now a faded memory. Mikael killed many in 1919. All that was left was Marcel, myself, a handful of witches, and the crescent pack that took me in as family.

As a result, the Mikaelson's and their influence was all but forgotten. And that included the influence of The Woman of Peace, as some had once come to call me. As the years passed, and then decades more, one title became many.

The Woman of Peace. The King's Crown. The Nameless Woman.

And with that came a whisper… "May the Queen rest in peace, and put in a good word for me with the Devil."

Apparently 70 plus years is enough time for the names of Klaus Mikaelson and Julia Rochelle to disappear. Apparently the memories of the people are short. But my memory is long.

"Mrs. Kenner? I've heard a disconcerting rumor."

I look at the man who is but a child compared to my years. I remember when he was born. I remember when many of the members of the pack were. Thus is the passage of life, and I grow ever older and wiser while my face remains unchanged. "What have you heard?"

"That Brynne Deveraux intends to place a curse on us all."

"Deveraux? As I recall they are a decently powerful witch line in the quarter. But I haven't heard anything to make me believe that Brynne would…" I pause. History has taught me that the name and face of a witch means nothing. "Is she working alone?"

He shakes his head. "My understanding is that Marcel Gerard is enabling her to enact it."

My jaw clenches and I have to stop my eye from twitching. I never stopped thinking of Marcel as my son, but he is making it increasingly difficult to have forgiveness of his betrayal at the ready. If it weren't for his selfishness, our family would still be intact, he would be happy with Rebekah, and Klaus…

I grab a pen and paper and quickly write:

Marcellus,

I have heard a most disturbing rumor of a Deveraux nature. Should this rumor prove to be true, you may expect a most unsavory reaction.

Always and Forever,

Your Mother

"Take this to the compound and ensure it gets to Marcel."

"Yes ma'am."

But my message goes unheeded.

When the Deveraux witch begins I am there. "Celeste," I say in greeting.

She smirks the same smirk I have seen on her previous faces. "Well well. If it isn't Julia Rochelle, the Original whore."

I scoff. "As I recall, you were with an Original long before I was. Do not try to break me down with petty name calling. We are both far too old for it."

"Hmm. I must agree with that I suppose." Her power knocks me down. "You will not stop me. I made you a promise the last time I saw you."

My mind goes back to that night. The night that she ripped my sight away from me and blinded my third eye. The night that I truly lost everyone I loved.

"I am going to rip your little family apart, piece by piece. First I am going to destroy Marcel's love for you. Then I will rip Klaus and Rebekah asunder. I will rip out Elijah's hope bit by bit. And then, just when you think there's a shred of hope for you and your lover, I am going to torture you both using the other, until all that is left is pain."

She smiles and it makes me feel physically sick. "Oh good. You do remember. You know what the best part about this is? It's that I didn't have to do anything to make Marcellus turn against you like this. You did that all on your own. This whole curse? It was his idea."

As she enacts the curse, the power in the air buzzes like electricity. My stomach drops out when my people begin to turn. Bones cracking, screaming erupting, children sobbing as their parents turn before their eyes.

"No! What are you doing to them?"

She laughs as she finishes. "I have reversed their plight. Your little Marcel has become quite the mastermind has he not? To make them wolves everyday except for the night of the full moon? What a strategy! It keeps them from being a threat to him and hurts you immeasurably."

The she-wolf who is currently alpha leaps forward between me and the witch in a protective stance. Celeste's smile just grows ever more disconcerting. I crawl forward and thread my fingers through the fur of her thick coat. "It's okay, Little Devil," I whisper. "We will fix this."

Marcel's vampires run us out of town and into the Bayou. But if my son thinks he can do this to my people, he is sorely mistaken.

I march into the compound with as much grace as I can muster. I pride myself on my control, but the obvious celebratory mood of the vampires in the courtyard puts me on edge. Their current 1990s fashion doesn't make me feel any better. I detest it.

"Mother! Welcome home!" Marcel says with a grin.

My eyes narrow. "A word, Marcellus."

His smile shifts. "Anything you have to say to me you can say right here."

"I warned you Marcel. I warned you not to move against me."

"I moved against my enemy."

"No!" I say firmly. "You moved against the Crescents. My family."

"As I recall, I was once your family."

"And as I recall you renounced me the day you decided not to come home from war. Did you not call them your family?! Did you not think that he would tell me exactly what occurred?" I am careful not to name the man we speak of.

"I came home. I was the good son. And still you left. You could've stood by me. But you didn't."

"You didn't give me a choice Marcellus!"

"Family is choice! You taught me that. And you chose the wolves. You chose to ally with the enemy. And worse. You chose to add to their ranks." He smiles cruelly. "How is your daughter by the way?"

It's as though the temperature in the room drops suddenly. I step forward and stand in Marcel's space. His daywalkers stand at attention around us. "Tell your lackeys to stand down, and I won't hurt them," I say lowly. "And you know I can Marcel. You've backed me into a corner and I have stood against vampires more than ten times their age."

A small hand gesture from him makes them all relax their stances ever so slightly.

"Let me make one thing irrevocably clear. Choosing to have my daughter does not make you any less my son. Whether it was your choice or not, she is your family too. And you have acted against us. And I will not be idle Marcellus. No. I will reverse what you have done to my pack, and I will stand by and watch happily when the true king comes back for his throne. And when it's all said and done, and he has stripped you of every title you've ever stolen, I will have you on your knees begging for my forgiveness. And then maybe. Just maybe. I'll grant it to you."

I turn on my heel and I walk calmly from the building, vampire eyes on me, yet they don't dare move. I have unnerved their leader, who they never see unnerved, and it scares them. When I'm out of sight, I smile.

I may be the so called Nameless Woman, but I am certainly not forgotten.

I reenter the bayou and comfort the young ones. But children are resilient and they adjust amazingly quickly to the new situation. It must help that they have all known me all of their lives. I smile as I watch them play by the water. It brings to mind the first time I sat at the water's edge, not so far from here.

Barely weeks after the wolves had come for me, I sit by the water in the Bayou and fiddle absentmindedly with the moon charm Lana had gifted me should I ever be in need. She's been gone for a couple of months now, and I can feel the mourning among her pack. Jacque Kenner does his best to lead them in her absence, as he was next in line to do so.

"You are afraid," Jacque says as he joins me on the bank.

"Is it that obvious?"

"Maybe not to everyone else. But I know that pain." I look at him questioningly. He smiles gently. "The pain of losing a loved one. And as I understand it, in a way, you've lost many."

I nod. "A friend. A sister." I swallow. "A love and a son."

He nods sympathetically. "I lost a wife."

"I'm sorry."

"It is the way of things. Life goes on. But it does leave me in a predicament." He turns toward me and his expression takes on a familiar impassiveness. "You see, Ida and I did not have any children, which means my line ends with me. With Lana's passing and as alpha, it is important that doesn't stay the case."

I match his tone and energy. "I appreciate when negotiations are frank and upfront Mr. Kenner."

The tiny smile disappears as quickly as it appears. "I am proposing a mutually beneficial arrangement Ms. Rochelle."

I stand and slowly begin to pace as I consider it. I regard him thoughtfully. "I am not a werewolf. What makes you think the pack would accept that?"

"Lana trusted you. She spoke highly of you. She gifted you the crescent beacon," he gestures to the necklace I still wear. "She would not have done any of that if she did not consider you to be one of us. The pack will accept you, and any children you bear. In return, you gain the loyalty of my people for the entirety of your life. Once an alpha, always an alpha."

"Or the wife of one in this case."

"Your circumstances at the moment dictate to me that you must at least be considering it."

I sigh and look out to the water. "You have that protective streak in you that all wolves seem to."

"As do you."

I look back at him. We are both in need of something we can provide for the other. As Klaus once said, I am nothing if not a strategist. So I do the only thing I can. "I accept."

I smile to myself. I do not regret the decision I made then. With it, I gained a good father for a daughter. The she-wolf at my side lays her head in my lap and my hands run through her fur. "We will get through this Little Devil."

And although she can't respond to me in words, I have known her since before she was born. We have been through much together already. We will get through this too. I just have to continue my preparations for the return of the true king.