Elena was in her bedroom resting for a bit. There was still a lot going on in her head. It was hard to adjust to two sets of memories, feelings, and personalities swirling around in her body. It would take time to get acclimated to it. Unfortunately, she didn't have much time to rest. There were many things she needed to get done. The first was retrieving Jeremy. His place was with her. He wasn't safe out there. She had too many enemies that could use him to hurt her, not the least of whom were her 'friends.' She had to move to protect him now. Then she would take the steps necessary to take her daughter back.

Getting Freya back would be far from simple. Dahlia wasn't going to let her go without a hell of a fight. Even as she was now, Elena didn't think she could win that fight yet. She had a better chance now than she did a thousand years ago because she couldn't be killed, but she wasn't sure Dalia could be either. She needed to plan carefully. As much as she wanted to go for Freya now, she knew she had to resist that urge. If she acted rashly, she would fail, and she might end up harming her children in the process.

Elena also had to be prepared for the possibility that Freya wouldn't want anything to do with her. She wouldn't be able to blame her if she didn't. Her oldest had every right to hate her. If she did, Elena would accept that, but first she would make sure she was safe.

Elena's thoughts were interrupted when she heard a knock at the door. She immediately stood up. "Come in."

Klaus entered moments later carrying a large book. It was his mother's grimoire. "I thought you might want this back."

Elena smiled and closed the distance between them. She took the grimoire from her son. "Thank you for keeping this."

"Of course, I kept it. It's valuable. I combed through it to find a way to break the curse you put on me," Klaus said. He couldn't keep the bitterness from escaping his lips.

"I'm sorry, Niklaus. I will say that to you for as long as it takes for you to believe me. I don't expect you to forgive me right away, but I hope that one day you can," Elena said.

"Why did you do it?" Klaus asked. He'd asked her that same question that night, the night he'd taken her life. All she would say to him was that it was for his own good. That was what had set him off. She'd acted as though her actions were justified, and she wouldn't even give him a straight answer as to why. He hadn't meant to kill her. He didn't even realize she was dead until she laid lifeless at his feet.

Elena sighed sadly. There was a time when she would've justified that action. She truly believed it was best at the time, but she'd had a thousand years in that coffin to go over every action she'd taken. She also had the life experiences of Elena Gilbert in her mind now too. She knew that what she'd done was inexcusable. "When I told you I'd done it for your own good, I'd convinced myself of it. I know now that it wasn't."

"Were you ashamed of me, of what I am?" Klaus asked as he looked down at his feet.

Elena took ahold of her son's chin and made him look at her. "No! There is not one single day of your life that I have been ashamed of you! I may have been disappointed at times, but shame is never something I could feel for you. If anything, I was ashamed of me and the terrible choices I made that harmed my children. I suppose that doesn't answer your question though. I cursed you because I was afraid that Mikael would kill you if I didn't."

"Why didn't you kill him then? You could've," Klaus said.

Elena nodded. "And I should've. I have no excuse for not doing more to protect you. I never should've allowed him to touch any of you. I think I was waiting and hoping for the man I married to come back. He wasn't always the way he was, and it's partially my fault that he changed. I'd hoped he'd just wake up one day and be back to the way he used to be. It was a foolish dream, and you and your siblings paid the price. The other reason I'd cursed you is that I'd convinced myself that you were better off without your werewolf side."

"Better off without a part of me?" Klaus asked angrily.

"I never thought of it that way. I could only think of the pain it would cause you to transform every month. That's also why I did everything I could to make sure you didn't activate your curse," Elena explained.

"I didn't care about the pain. Without that part of me, I felt incomplete," Klaus said.

"I'm so sorry, my son," Elena said.

"What's done is done, I suppose. I came in here for another reason. I wanted to ask you to move in here with the rest of us," Klaus said. He'd given her a room in his home, but he'd yet to ask her to stay until now. He didn't forgive her. It would take time, if he ever did. He didn't trust her fully either. She seemed sincere, but a part of her had to hate him, if not for killing her then surely because of the memories she had of Elena hating him. However, that was all the more reason for him to want her close. He wanted to watch her to make sure he could trust her.

Elena smiled. She knew she was far from forgiven. She knew her son didn't trust her. She was willing to earn that, but this was a start. "I would love that, darling. However, you need to know that I intend to bring Jeremy back to town, and he stays with me. He is as much my family as the rest of you. I expect you to treat him as such."

"He hates me," Klaus said. If his mother didn't already secretly hate him, she would with the influence of the boy. He certainly hated him. Despite the fact that he didn't trust her and didn't yet forgive her, he didn't want his mother to hate him.

"Can you blame him?" Elena asked. She'd already forgiven her son for Jenna's death because she recognized that she was at least just as responsible for what happened that night. There would've been no ritual if not for her. However, that didn't negate the fact that Niklaus took her life. While Elena forgave him, she couldn't expect Jeremy to.

"He'll want you to hate me. He'll try to convince you…"

Elena put a hand on his cheek, which stopped him from speaking. "I could never hate you, Niklaus. It doesn't matter what you do. I will always love you. Besides, there is nothing that Jeremy or anyone else could tell me that I don't know already. I was there, remember? Well, I suppose I wasn't technically there, but I have the memory of it and the anger and pain that went with it."

Klaus reluctantly nodded. "Alright, but I don't think he'll want to be here."

"No, I imagine he won't, but there's no other option. The Salvatores and Bonnie and Alaric know that I'm no longer the same naïve girl that they knew a few days ago. They don't know my other identity yet, but they will find out, and I can't chance that they will use Jeremy against me. I know he won't like it, but it's a matter of safety, and I won't compromise when it comes to his safety, no more than I would with the rest of you," Elena told him. Jeremy would undoubtedly be unhappy with her decision. He might even be angry with her for being who she was. She could accept that as long as he was safe.

"Don't you consider the Salvatores and the Bennett witch friends?" Klaus asked.

"A part of me does. I still care for them, but I don't trust them. The Salvatores are loose cannons, and I will never turn my back on a Bennett witch again. I thought Ayana was my friend once too. I won't make the same mistake twice," Elena said firmly.

Klaus nodded. "When will you leave?"

"Soon. I would like to leave within the next few hours. For all I know, Bonnie and the Salvatores have already considered Jeremy. I can't chance waiting any longer," Elena said. She didn't like leaving her children so soon after getting back to them, but there was no choice. She needed to secure Jeremy right away.

"You could use our plane. You could be there and back within a few hours that way," Klaus said. Denver was a while away by car. It would take his mother several hours just to get there. This way, she could be back by the end of the day.

Elena smiled. "Thank you, darling. That would be wonderful."

"I don't suppose you'd consent to one of us going with you?" Klaus asked.

"That's not a good idea. The truth is going to be hard enough for Jeremy to accept without one of you being there," Elena said. He was definitely going to give her a hard time about going once he knew. She was seriously considering not even telling him until she had him on the plane.

"Very well. I'll set up your flight plan. The plane should be ready in about an hour," Klaus said.

"Thank you," Elena said before watching him leave the room.