"Dobby makes the best treacle tart." Maya commented, As she bit into the sweet and sticky slice of treacle tart.

It was absolutely true. No one could make a treacle tart like Dobby, with his secret recipe and his magic touch. Maya closed her eyes and let the rich flavour fill her senses, enjoying every crumb of her most beloved dessert. Tyler and Caroline followed Maya's lead and sampled the treacle tart. Tyler with the enthusiasm of a true convert having experienced the deliciousness on previous occasions. Caroline, on the other hand, nibbled the edge of her slice, unsure of what to expect from the unfamiliar treat. She was curious to try it, though, seeing how Maya and Tyler were practically in ecstasy over it. A moan of pleasure slipped out as she tasted it for the first time.

"Oh my God! This is delicious! Thanks Dobby." Caroline

"I know right?" Tyler nodded in agreement with Caroline's statement. "Thanks Dobby!"

"You is all being most welcome." Dobby beamed at the three of them, his long ears quivering with pride, before he left them in the den, disapparating with a sharp crack.

Caroline cocked her head to the side slightly as she swallowed down the bite she'd just been savouring.

"Damon's home."

Maya's eyes lit up at the news. She dropped her spoon and leaped over the back of the sofa, leaving behind her half-eaten slice of her favourite dessert. As beloved as treacle tart was, it still wasn't on a par with her babbo. Also, she really wanted to know what had happened with Elijah. Caroline and Tyler shared a knowing grin, setting down their own bowls and following her at a more leisurely pace.

Damon was the first through the door, and Maya didn't hesitate to fling herself forward into his waiting arms, hugging him as tightly as she could. He smiled and hugged her back, laying a kiss on the top of her head as he carefully manoeuvred them both out of the way of the door so that Maggie, Enzo, and Stefan could enter. Elijah stopped in the doorway; a peculiar expression passed across his face as he saw their hug, but he quickly wiped it away, and assumed a warm and polite smile.

"Hey kiddo."

"What happened?" Maya asked pulling back slightly and tilting her head up so she could see his face. "Caroline said you found Elijah."

"We did."

Damon gently turned her around so that she was facing the still open front door of the house, where Elijah was standing, attempting to look relaxed and casual. Maya's mouth dropped open into a surprise 'O'.

"Hi."

"Hello."

"Hi." She said again, still lost in disbelief that he was actually here, blushing when she realised, she'd just repeated herself.

Elijah's smile became more pronounced as amusement filled his eyes.

"Hello." He repeated as well, chuckling softly.

Damon brushed a gentle hand over the back of her head. And she turned her head and looked up at him an unspoken question in her eyes. Damon didn't need her to ask it verbally though, he knew exactly what she wanted to know.

"It's your choice kiddo." He said, his voice low and serious.

His eyes were full of concern and love. He knew that inviting Elijah in would change everything for Maya, and he wasn't sure if she was ready for it. He wanted her to be happy, but he also wanted her to be safe. He waited for her to make the decision.

Maya smiled and turned back to Elijah who had watched their interaction with careful eyes. He could see the bond between Maya and Damon, and he felt a surge of gratitude and respect for the man who had taken care of his niece. He didn't want to intrude on their relationship, but he did want to be a part of it. To have his own relationship with her. He hoped that Maya would let him in.

Maya was filled with curiosity and longing. She loved the family she had with Damon and everyone else, but she craved to learn more about her roots, to know her dad and her relatives on that side, to expand her family as much as possible. In the almost two years since she had found out her dad was Niklaus Mikaelson, that he was still alive, she had dreamt of meeting him, of meeting her family. Elijah, her uncle who wanted to kill her dad, was here, standing on the porch, the sun casting a golden glow on his face.

She faced a dilemma, inviting him inside meant opening up a whole new world of possibilities and dangers. He wanted to kill her dad, at least according to what he'd told Damon and Elena. She should say no. Shut the door and not let him in. Not when all she knew of him really was that he wanted to kill her dad. But he was the first link to her paternal family that she had. And that meant everything to her. He was standing there in front of her, unable to hide the hope in his eyes. And that was enough for her. In the end, her choice wasn't at all difficult to make.

"Would you like to come in?"

"I would love to. Thank you."

He lifted a foot slowly and placed it down inside the house carefully, as if not quite believing her invite would be enough to allow him inside. With a soft smile he stepped inside, gaze remaining on Maya who was smiling back, despite the hint of uncertainty in her eyes.

"Normally, I'd suggest we talk in the living room," Damon started to say, gesturing vaguely in that direction. "But it's a bit of a mess right now –"

"We cleaned it up." Maya interrupted him, flashing a grin in his direction. "Caroline insisted."

"We even replaced all the lightbulbs." Caroline chimed in, trying to relieve a little bit of the awkward tension in the air.

Not that it worked. Her words merely served to draw attention to the fact that the three of them still had an audience. Maggie, Enzo, and Stefan quietly slipped away, further into the house and Caroline and Tyler both made their excuses to leave.

"You know what, I'm totally gonna be late for girls night with Bonnie and Elena. I should go." Caroline told them.

"Yeah, and I promised Matt, I'd go to music night at the Grill." Tyler said a second later, "So, I guess I should head out as well."

They both hugged Maya and wished her luck, then waved at Damon and Elijah. Slipping out of the house and closing the door behind them. Leaving the three of them to the awkwardness that was Maya's first proper meeting with her uncle, because Carol's dinner party so did not count as a proper introduction.

"Living room, it is then I guess." Damon said after a moment, allowing Maya to lead the way and taking a seat on the sofa next to her.

Elijah sat down opposite them, his gaze wandering over the room, taking in the walls of books, the antique furnishings, and the more modern touches. The photos that were scattered about, one of Maya's sketchpads that she'd left lying on the coffee table, the 'World's Best Veg-pire' mug that Tyler had given Stefan as a joke. His gaze lingered for a long time on the three paintings around the fireplace, the family portrait that hung above it and the two paintings on either side that Maya had painted and gifted to Damon for Christmas. One had been painted from a photo taking of herself and Damon when they'd visited NASA last summer. The second was from their trip to Disneyworld, featuring the two of them plus Stefan, Maggie, and Enzo, all of them wearing the Mickey Mouse ears she had insisted on.

"Those are beautiful, aren't they?" Damon said, breaking the silence. Following Elijah's gaze and smiling fondly. "Maya is quite the artist. She loves to paint. They were her Christmas gifts to me the past two years."

"They're very good." Elijah finally turned away, looking back to Maya with a soft smile. "Niklaus is an artist as well, has been since we were children here, though it wasn't called Mystic Falls then. Your father was incessantly painting back in those days. Mixing, searching for brighter reds, for deeper blues. He used to wake me in the middle of the night, just to show me the colour that he would swear he himself had invented. I remember the first time he showed me a turquoise."

Maya felt a surge of mixed emotions as she listened to his voice, soft and gentle, and looked into his eyes, shining with affection. She couldn't understand how Elijah could love his brother so deeply, yet be determined to end his life. How could anyone love someone so much and still want them dead. It didn't make sense.

"Why do you want to kill him?"

It probably wasn't the question she was supposed to ask. She was probably supposed to ask getting to know you questions, ask about hobbies what it was like being a thousand years old etc. But it was the question Maya most wanted the answer to. The question she'd been wondering about ever since Elena had revealed the details of the deal she'd made with Elijah.

"It's obvious you love him. He's your brother. So, why are you planning to kill him?"

Elijah glanced once at Damon, who didn't say anything, didn't give a single hint of what he was thinking or feeling. Seeing he would get no help from that corner to divert the conversation in a different direction, he sighed and looked back to Maya.

"I was very angry with him for something he did almost a century ago." He said, choosing his words carefully.

Maya was young, she didn't need to know all the dark and bloody details of the past. Niklaus was not by any means an innocent, but neither was Elijah or the rest of his family. They all had blood on their hands. Over the centuries, they had all killed and betrayed, loved and lost, it was a price of living as long as they had done. He didn't want to say anything that might prejudice Maya against her father, they deserved the chance to get to know each other free of the shadows of the past.

He understood fully now why Damon was determined to find a way to break the curse on Niklaus without anyone having to die. Because he wanted Maya to be able to build a relationship with her father without darkness or death hanging over them. Elijah wanted that to. He wanted to protect her from the horrors that lurked in his memories, not to frighten or hurt her. He wanted to give her a chance to know him, to love him, as he did her. He wanted to be a part of her family, the thing he valued most in the world.

"What did he do?" Maya pressed, not satisfied with his vague answer.

She couldn't imagine what her father could have done to turn love to hate. What terrible act he had committed to make Elijah desire his death, despite the love he clearly still held towards his brother. What dark secret had he uncovered, what unforgivable sin had Niklaus committed? Maya didn't want to hear the gruesome details, but she needed to know the truth. Damon had always been honest with her, even when it hurt. She deserved to know the truth about her father from Elijah, too.

"It does not matter." Elijah said, closing the topic. "I no longer have any intention of killing Niklaus."

It was both the truth and a lie.

Elijah still wanted to make Niklaus pay for what he had done. For so cruelly separating him from his siblings forever.

But he also wanted to save him, redeem him. To forgive him. He wanted to heal their wounds, restore their bond. He wanted to give Niklaus a chance to be a father and a brother.

He was torn between his anger and his love. Between his duty to his siblings and his duty to his niece. Between his past and his future.

He was looking at Maya, who was waiting for him to say more. To explain himself, to justify his actions.

He wished he could tell her everything. To share the pain, he felt knowing his siblings were forever lost to him, and the joy he had felt upon realising his family had grown larger. But he couldn't. Not just because he didn't want to say anything that might ruin whatever relationship she could one day build with Niklaus, with her father. But because he was afraid of what Maya might think of him. He was afraid of losing a chance to build his own relationship with her, to truly be her uncle, if he said the wrong thing.

So, he said nothing.

Damon seemed to understand the dilemma he was feeling, because he stroked a gentle hand through Maya's hair, drawing her attention to him and smiled.

"Why don't you tell Elijah about yourself." He suggested.

"Like what?"

"Other than art, what do you enjoy doing?" Elijah asked, his voice soft and warm. Grateful for the opportunity to steer the conversation away from more fraught topics.

"I like Quidditch. I'm gonna play professionally one day."

Maya said it with such certainty, voice filled with passion for the sport she adored. Damon was exceptionally proud of her skill, even if a part of him wished she preferred a less dangerous sport. Elijah smiled at her enthusiasm.

"It's been several centuries since I've seen a Quidditch match." He replied.

"You know about Quidditch?" Maya asked in surprise.

Despite knowing her ancestors for so long and being involved in their lives, Damon hadn't known anything about Quidditch until she'd introduced him and the rest of the family to the sport. Not even Lexi who'd known about the wixen world centuries longer than Damon, had known much about Quidditch. Other than it was a sport played on broomsticks. So, she hadn't expected Elijah to know much about Quidditch at all, let alone to have actually seen a match.

"Yes. I saw a match in Norway in the twelfth century. And a few in Germany in the thirteenth. What position do you play?"

"I'm a seeker. I played for the Gryffindor team the year I was at Hogwarts, and I've held the position on the Junior team the past two years."

"A seeker? I don't believe that position existed when I last saw a match. What does the seeker do?" Elijah enquired, happy that he had found a topic of conversation that wasn't fraught with difficulties.

Maya stared at him for a moment. She'd read Quidditch Through the Ages several times; it was one of her favourite books after all. She had an academic understanding of how the game had developed from it's early beginnings in England to now. She'd also known how old Elijah was, and thought she'd understood that as well. But it was completely bizarre to be talking to someone who had last watched a Quidditch match before the game was fully developed. Still Quidditch was one of her favourite topics to talk about, so she enthusiastically launched into a full description of the game as it existed now, including what her role as a seeker was.

Caroline had waited for Matt to finish cleaning up at the Grill after closing. It had been an enjoyable evening, just hanging out with everyone and having fun, something they'd all been short on the last few months. But she needed to have a conversation with Matt about where they stood, and walking home with him was the perfect chance for them to do so without any interruptions. As soon as Matt locked the door, the two of them began to walk slowly down the street.

"So, Jeremy seems to be doing a lot better, Anna's good for him." Matt commented after a moment.

Caroline nodded.

"Yeah, Anna and the therapist Maggie persuaded him to give speaking to a try."

"The new guy, Luka. I think he likes Bonnie."

"She likes him too; she's considering asking him to go to the Decade Dance with her."

"Cool. Vicki's going with Tyler. He's apparently apologised enough times for whatever happened between them that she's decided to give him another chance. Elena will probably go with Stefan, So…"

Matt trailed off, gathering his courage. He stopped and turned to face Caroline, who also stopped and looked at him with curiosity. He took a deep breath and stared into her eyes, trying to convey his unspoken emotions.

"So, what?" she asked.

Matt looked into Caroline's eyes and took a deep breath. He had to know where they stood, before it was too late.

"Look, we keep saying we're gonna have a talk about where things… where we stand right now. But we haven't." He clenched his fists, trying not to sound too desperate or too pushy. "I really like you, Care, but I need to know whether there actually is an us, or should I be finding someone else to go to the Decade Dance with?" He waited for her answer, holding his breath.

Caroline felt a pang of guilt and sadness. She knew Matt deserved the truth, but she was afraid of losing him. She reached for his hand and squeezed it gently.

"I really like you too, Matt. And I know things have been strained between us since the accident. But I'd like to give 'us' another try, if you would." She smiled softly and looked into his eyes. "So, Matt Donovan, will you go to the Decade Dance with me?"

"Caroline Forbes. I would love to go to the Decade Dance with you."

Matt grinned, feeling a surge of relief and happiness. He wrapped a hand around her waist and pulled her closer, kissing her passionately. The two of them were so wrapped up in each other that they didn't immediately notice the car speeding towards them. Not until it was already mounting the pavement as the driver aimed straight at them. Matt heard a loud screech of tires. He opened his eyes and saw a black SUV coming right at them. He felt a jolt of fear and tried to push Caroline away.

"Care, look out!" he shouted.

Caroline did the only thing she could do in that moment, knowing that out of the two of them only she would survive if the car struck them. She grabbed hold of Matt and moved them both at vampire speed out of the way of the oncoming vehicle. Leaving it to crash straight through the shop front instead. She heard a loud bang and a shatter of glass. She felt Matt's body tense up in her arms. She looked at him and saw his eyes wide with shock and horror.

"Matt are you okay?" she asked, her voice trembling.

"What the hell? How… how did you do that? How did you move us that fast."

"Because vampire's can move a lot faster than humans, and that's what I am. I'm a vampire, Matt."

He pulled away from her, horror, and confusion in his eyes.

"What?"

Caroline felt a surge of panic and regret. She wished she could take back the last few minutes, go back to before the car had almost hit them, but it was too late. She had exposed her secret to Matt, the one person she cared about the most. She knew he must be shocked and hurt, but she hoped he would still listen to her. She looked at him with pleading eyes and a trembling lip.

"Matt, I will explain everything I promise, but not right now. Right now, I need to deal with this," She gestured at the crashed car. "And I need you to not tell anyone, please." She grabbed his arm and squeezed it gently. "Please Matt. I need you to promise not to tell anyone until I can explain. Please."

"I… I don't… I… What?"

"Please Matt. I need you to promise not to tell anyone until I can explain. Please."

Matt stared at her for a moment before giving a single nod.

"Fine. I promise."

Matt looked back at the car, that was half in and half out of the storefront. It was a black SUV with tinted windows and a smashed front. The store was a mess of broken glass, fallen shelves, and scattered products. He could hear the alarm ringing. He wondered who was driving the car and why they wanted to kill them. He felt Caroline's hand on his shoulder.

"You, call an ambulance and then call your mom. I'm gonna go see who was driving." He told her firmly.

"Why would I call my mom?"

"Because this wasn't an accident Care. They were deliberately aiming at us."

Caroline nodded and pulled out her phone and dialled 911. Following Matt with her eyes as he carefully clambered over broken glass and brick to get to the driver's side door. He carefully and slowly pulled open the door.

"Oh my God!"