THREE months had passed since Valentina returned to Louisiana and things weren't all that she had hoped. A witch by the name of Jane Deveraux managed to link her sister Sophie to Valentina as a way to manipulate Klaus into doing as she asked which was to get rid of Marcel, who somehow survived everything that happened in 1919.

Rebekah parked her car in front of the mansion and left an angry voicemail for her brother as she climbed out. "Elijah, if not answering your phone is part of your clever plan to get me back to this godforsaken city, then well done. I'm here, and I'm worried. Now pick up before I kick in your bloody door." She stormed up the stairs and strolled through the front door. She looked around the old Governor's estate with familiarity.

The stairs creaked loudly with someone else's footsteps and the blonde beamed happily when a five-month-pregnant Valentina came toward her. "Oh! You're getting so big!"

"That's not exactly the compliment you think it is," Valentina remarked in mild offense then pulled her sister-in-law in for a warm hug.

"Hmm." Rebekah mused fondly as she returned the gesture. She then pulled away, her hands resting on Valentina's shoulders. "Where's Elijah?"

"I don't know." Valentina breathed out with a shake of her head. "I haven't seen him in a while. Nik keeps saying he's gone so connect the dots."

"Elijah doesn't break promises." Rebekah reminded the brunette as her face turned down into a furious scowl. "Which means Niklaus has done something dastardly and Klaus-like. Klaus!" She raised her voice to yell into the vast house. "Get out here and tell me what you've done with our brother, you narcissistic, back-stabbing wanker!"

Klaus opened a pair of French doors to the dining room, a displeased expression crossing his face. "Enough with all the shouting." He snapped then smiled widely at the sight of Rebekah. "Little sister, I should have known. I assume the six dead vampires were your doing?"

"They were very rude. Trying to victimize a poor, innocent girl just trying to find her way to the Quarter." Rebekah defended her actions with a shrug of her shoulders then turned to him in sarcasm. "So sorry, were they friends of yours? Oh, that's right, you don't have any friends."

Valentina flattened her lips into a firm line and cast her glance down to the hardwood floor to keep from laughing.

"I do have friends." He defended sternly. "I have Marcel." He explained before smirking suggestively at her. "You remember him, don't you? Yes, of course, you do." He mocked then rolled his eyes in annoyance. "He fancies himself the 'King of the Quarter' now, and he has these rules about killing vampires. It'll be fun to see what sort of punishment he comes up with for you."

"I don't care about Marcel or his rules. Elijah doesn't welch on deals. What did you do to him?" Rebekah's questioned in an accusatory tone and narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

Klaus smirked and shrugged his shoulders. "Perhaps he's on holiday... or taking a long autumn nap upstairs. Well, go on. Take a look around. You remember this house as well as I."

Rebekah had a distant expression on her face and studied the house closely before turning back to Klaus. "I remember everything. I remember how the drunken fool of a governor hid away all of our vampire sins in exchange for gold. I remember the lavish parties the governor threw, as if to impress you. I remember finding a moment of affection with the Governor's son, Emil. And I remember that even Elijah was happy." She then reminisced about Klaus killing her beloved, Emil in 1820 after she asked to turn him.

Klaus waved her off and shot her a stern look. "Well, he wasn't good enough for you."

Rebekah rolled her eyes and scoffed in disgust. "No one was ever good enough for me, Nik, you made sure of that. Now, where is Elijah?"

Klaus' phone started buzzing so he pulled it out to check it. He stood still for a moment then moved to leave, walking past her toward the foyer again.

Rebekah threw her hands up incredulously and followed after him. "Where are you going?"

"It appears the night is not quite over, yet. I'm off for another drink with Marcel." Klaus explained to them, mostly to his wife before he kissed her affectionately on the forehead.

Rebekah crossed her arms across her chest and glared at him. "Elijah told me about your plan to take apart Marcel's empire piece by piece. I don't remember it involving you two drinking New Orleans dry together."

"I know you don't have many friends, Rebekah, but what some friends do when they get together is they drink." Klaus insulted her to get back for earlier and slowly walked toward her again. "And when they drink, they tell secrets. Marcel has somehow found a way to control the entirety of witches in the Quarter, and I aim to uncover the 'how' so I might take it for myself. Finding Elijah didn't make my to-do list today." He remarked with a bitter smile and gave Valentina a parting kiss on the lips before turning on his heels and walking toward the door. "Have a good night, my sweet. I'll see you in the morning. I love you." He paused once he reached the door and turned to the blonde with a wide smile. "Oh, and welcome home, little sister."

The door shut behind him and Rebekah turned on her spot, contemplating what he said. She tapped her fingers against her upper arms and turned to Valentina with a mischievous face. "I'm going to search this house inch by inch until I find what my evil brother has done to my good one. You're helping. The governor had lots of secret rooms. I'll show you his favorites."

"Actually, I'll pass." Valentina refused immediately. "This house makes me uncomfortable so the less I see of it the better."

"You don't want to find him?" Rebekah asked in disbelief.

"No, I do." Valentina corrected sternly then sighed heavily. "I just hate this house and I already have a hunch about what Nik's done to him."

"Well, I'm leaving as soon as I find Elijah. So help or don't. It's your choice." Rebekah snarkily commented as she walked past, her heels slamming against the floor in determination.

Valentina watched her turn the corner and rolled her eyes after she disappeared.

Halfway through the night, Valentina woke up with a strong craving for French fries. She walked downstairs, calling out for anyone who could be there but received no response. Stumbling into the kitchen, she started to rummage through the cabinets and freezer for anything but found her supply limited.

Sighing in aggravation, she looked up the closest restaurant nearby that served French fries and found one within walking distance. She slipped on a quick pair of shoes and pulled a jacket over her body. The Mikaelson wife grabbed her keys, shoved her phone in her pocket, then left the mansion.

After happily getting her fries, she started the walk home again while talking to Damon over the phone and eating her snack one fried piece of potato at a time.

"Stefan's missing." He broke the news from the other end of the call.

"What the hell do you mean he's missing?" Valentina asked in confusion. "I just talked to him this morning."

"Wait, what?" He questioned quickly, his tone concerned and panicked.

"Yeah. He called to ask how the baby and I are doing." She explained bluntly, oblivious to the issue. "He sounded completely fine over the phone. Maybe he still doesn't wanna talk to you."

"Shut up." Damon snapped defensively and she knew he had rolled his eyes at her. "Did he say anything that seemed... weird or off?"

"Well..." Valentina trailed off in recollection. "He asked about Katherine. You know, where she is, if I've seen her. I thought he was just being his usual, empathetic self but that does seem weird now that I actually think about it. Why would I know where she is?"

"Tin, I need you to listen closely. That wasn't Stefan, that was Silas." He quickly explained causing her eyes to widen in surprise. "No one's heard from Stefan all summer. He's missing and I'm pretty sure Silas has something to do with it."

"Wait. Hold up." She paused in place with an incredulous expression on her face. "This makes no sense. Silas is a stone at the bottom of the quarry, right? So how's he just walking around pretending to be Stefan? And why?"

"Bonnie's dead. Turns out, the spell was bound to her." Damon broke the news gruffly, not easing into it at all. "So when she sacrificed herself to bring Jeremy back, Silas was freed and now he's after Katherine. Oh. Elena fed Katherine the cure BTW. Silas wants her blood so he can become mortal again. He's pretty determined to find her so if she turns up, don't tell me she's there. Don't tell anyone."

"I won't and even if she manages to show up here, Nik would kill her before Silas could. I'm sorry... Did you say, Bonnie's dead? What the fuck is going on over there?" She questioned in disbelief then waved a hand in the air and started walking again. "Never mind. We'll figure it out when I get there. I'll book the first flight out and should be back by early morning."

"Don't." He rejected calmly causing Valentina to raise an eyebrow even though he couldn't see it. "There's no point in coming up here if we don't even know where he is. Plus I doubt Klaus will let you anywhere near this. Just stay there until I can come up with a plan or hear any news, okay?"

"No. Don't do this. Don't push me out of the plan. Our little brother is missing. You can't just---" she tried to plead with him.

"I'm not trying to push you out. I'm trying to protect you, Tin. I also don't think you should waste the time flying here if we don't know where he is or how long this is going to take. Once I figure this out, I'll call you. For now, just stay put." Damon ordered sternly then paused to listen to the voice that could be heard in the background. "Okay. I gotta go. We'll talk later, okay?" He excused himself with urgency and hung up the phone before she could argue with him any further.

"Well, well..." a menacing voice chimed from behind her sending her heart dropping down into her stomach. "What do we have here?"

She spun around to meet the eyes of a strange man standing there with a dark smirk on his face. She began to back away from him but her back made contact with a hard surface and she stopped in her tracks.

"A woman like yourself shouldn't be out here all alone. Something bad could happen." The person behind her whispered harshly.

Valentina's hand wrapped around her keys which were in her jacket pocket and steadied herself with a deep breath. She dropped her fries, suddenly whipped around, and stabbed the end of her house key into one of his eyes. He screamed in pain and clutched his face while she pulled out something else from her pockets. She sprayed the first one in the face with her pepper spray, yanked her keys out from the other's eye then ran as fast as she could down the sidewalk.

Her victory was short-lived when she came face to face with two more men a few feet in front of her. However, her life was spared when Rebekah appeared out of nowhere, snapped the neck of one vampire, and ripped the heart out of the back of the other.

"Now, that is no way to treat a pregnant lady. I do hate bad manners." The blonde sneered at the corpses and carelessly dropped the heart to the ground.

Valentina shot her a relieved and appreciative smile while resting a hand over her baby bump.

They returned to the mansion with the bodies to find Klaus standing in the front yard with an infuriated scowl. Gulping, Valentina slowly walked over to stand beside him.

A tense silence filled the air between the trio as they waited for him to react. Valentina's heart pounded harshly in her chest and the anxiety was enough to make her nauseous.

Rebekah and Klaus gathered the bodies, building a pile in the grass so they could rid of the evidence from their crimes.

"This is why I told you never to leave the house. I had a plan and your little nighttime stroll put it all in peril!" He angrily sneered at Valentina, who stood there with watery eyes.

"Leave him!" He yelled at Rebekah when she started to approach the pile. "You've done enough, don't you think? Leaving a trail of bodies like a road map to my door?" He questioned Rebekah, enraged beyond reason.

"Don't give me that crap about having a plan." The youngest Mikaelson sibling snapped back. "You've had all the time in the world to execute a plan, and no one's seen you do a damn thing! Elijah made a deal to protect your child so that it could save you from your selfish, rotten self. But you obviously don't give a damn about the child or Elijah, because what have you done to honor it?"

"Rebekah---" Valentina started but went unheard.

"I have done everything." He growled out through gritted teeth. "Let me spell it out for you, shall I? From the day I arrived, Marcel hasn't trusted me. From Day One, he's had his vampires ingest toxic vervain which, as you know, little sister, protects them from my mind control. I needed a spy, someone on the inside with me who Marcel would never suspect. So, I created a Day Zero and got there first. Marcel had just lost six vampires, thanks to your little murder spree, and he needed new recruits. So, I made the new one mine, before he'd had even a drop of vervain. But we know the real way to a man is through his heart so I compelled the bartender he fancies." He then pointed a finger at the one vampire in the pile who was still alive. "And this one - I'm gonna drain him of vervain, compel him to believe his mates found religion and moved to Utah so that he can explain to Marcel why he lost three more vampires tonight." He explained while dragging the man up the stairs and into the house. He threw open the front door, left the man in the foyer, and turned around to look at the two women after they followed him inside. "Does anyone have any more questions? No?" He asked them and took note of how they both remained silent. "Good. Because I have a question, Valentina. What were you doing in the bloody French Quarter in the first place after I explicitly told you not to leave the house?!"

Valentina nearly jumped out of her skin, startled by the way he rose his voice at her. She blinked repeatedly to fight the tears that threatened to spill and opened her mouth to speak but no sound came out.

"Leave her be." Rebekah defended the human sternly.

Klaus jabbed a finger in Rebekah's direction, motioning for her to keep quiet, then spun back to Valentina. "Answer me!"

"I was ---" she choked on her own words as tears fell rapidly down her face. "I was just hungry and there was nothing in the kitchen so I... I'm sorry." She apologized in a small voice and cowered away from him.

Klaus' face instantly fell into a look of regret, the boiling-over pot of rage simmering down after realizing what he had done. He wasn't so much angry at her as he was worried. Had something happened to Valentina and/or their child, Klaus would've surely lost the very small remaining shreds of his sanity.

He cautiously reached over, pulled her into his chest, and held her as she sobbed loudly. "No. I'm sorry." He apologized sincerely while smoothing down her wild strands of hair. "I shouldn't speak to you like that. Ever. I panicked and--- and let that blind me. I am sorry. All I want is your safety. If something happened to you, I'd--- I would never recover."

She didn't respond verbally. Instead, Valentina gripped tightly onto the back of his leather jacket and hugged him closer.

"I promise to do better." He swore to her, dropping a hand down to rest his palm against the side of her baby bump. "I know you want your freedom but the cost is too high right now. I can't risk it. I need you to understand that."

Valentina pulled her head out of his chest, wiped her face with the back of her hand, and glanced up at him through her clumped eyelashes. "I'm sorry. I didn't think it'd be a big deal. All I did was go around the corner. But you're right. It's not safe. None of it is. So I won't do it again."

"I gave Elijah to Marcel." Klaus finally admitted to both of them.

"What?" Rebekah gasped out in surprise.

"Marcel was nervous. It's bad enough one Original returned to town, but two? His crew was getting antsy. He wanted Elijah gone, so... I gave him a peace offering." He explained his reasoning.

"You bartered our brother." Rebekah simplified in a series of emotions.

"I have a plan. Gain Marcel's trust, dismantle his empire, honor Elijah's deal, and be an attentive husband and father." He said with a hand held up then stared meaningfully down at Valentina. "I'm executing that plan the only way I know how. I need you to trust me and I just need your cooperation." He remarked softly before turning to Rebekah and gesturing with a tilt of his chin. "If you don't like it, there's the door. See if I care."

Valentina stood in the kitchen, eating a pint of ice cream Klaus got as an apology and staring distantly at the wall in front of her. She heard Klaus walk in and join her but she didn't snap out of her trance.

"You alright, my love?" He asked in concern.

"Yeah." She whispered with a curt nod of her head.

"I'm sorry." He atoned again, keeping a close eye on her.

"I know." Valentina acknowledged in a voice that was void of all emotion.

Her demeanor paired with his guilt and anxiety made it hard for him to settle down. "Do you to talk or do you want me to leave you alone?"

She placed another spoonful of ice cream in her mouth and pondered over what she wanted at that moment.

The silence felt agonizingly thick as Klaus waited for her to speak again. He knew he made a mistake earlier and was determined to fix it.

"Nik, we're supposed to be in this together, and, while I understand that being human puts me in a different position, you're the only one who's been making all the choices." She finally spoke her mind on the situation. "My life is tied to some witch. Have we found a way to undo that yet? Everyone's treating me like I'm some incapable child which is fucking frustrating and a bit dehumanizing. I'm stuck in a house that makes me extremely uncomfortable. I know you wanna protect me but how is a large mansion that just about anyone can walk into protecting me? I mean, you're gone all the time so it's not like you're not here to protect me yourself. Elijah's gone. I'm a sitting duck at this point. I trust that you know what you're doing with Marcel and I know you're busy trying your hardest to win your kingdom back but I just need you to either be a bit more present. I'm tired of feeling alone."

"I never intended to make you feel alone." He said sorrowfully. "I'm trying to win our home back before our child gets here."

She was about to respond but shook her head in rejection and whispered to herself. "Nope. Don't say that."

"Say it." Klaus encouraged, wanting to know everything that was troubling her.

Sighing loudly, Valentina set her spoon down on the counter and glanced over at him. "What's the point of winning our home back if you're gonna be too busy to be in it with me? I just want my husband. You haven't gone to a doctor's appointment with me in weeks. I only see you in passing. Never long enough to actually talk to you about anything. This baby is coming in a few short months and I don't wanna be doing all of it alone. This is our baby. You're their father so I need you to be here instead of drinking every night with Marcel. I know you're not doing it on purpose, Nik. I think you're just so focused on one thing that you don't realize it."

"Okay." He acknowledged everything she had said with a nod of his head then shifted nervously on his feet. "Okay." He repeated causing her to lift an eyebrow in anticipation.

The hybrid cupped her face in his large hands and tilted her chin up so their eyes remained locked. He stared down at her with a look that could only be described as determination. "Then from this point forward, I'll be more present. Tell me what you want, what you need, and it's yours. No question. You and this baby are everything to me and I'm sorry I haven't made you feel that way recently. I'm sorry I failed you. That wasn't my intention but I understand that I've absence has hurt you. I can't ask you to be cooperative with my plans if I can't meet your needs. From this point forward, your needs are my top priority."

"Hmm." She hummed with her eyes closed as their noses brushed against each other. "I love you."

"I love you, Valentine." He professed in admiration and rested his forehead on hers.

She smiled warmly for a second before recalling another thing she wanted to discuss. "Oh. Nik?"

"Yes, sweetheart." He mused fondly, his light blue eyes fluttering open so he could meet her eyes again.

"If you ever talk to me like that again---" She started her threat and lowered her hands to his pubic area, grabbing ahold of his testicles and tugging hard enough that he let out a small squeak of pain. "You will lose these." She jeered furiously with a stern glare.

Klaus swallowed the lump in his throat, smiled sheepishly, and nodded his head. "Understood, darling."

---
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-the1andonlytifftiff