INGRID and Klaus rushed into the mansion, she was supporting him by the shoulders as they stumbled through the threshold. Klaus clentched his jaw and growled in pain, glaring at nothing in particular. "Ingrid, hold on." He gasped out in, trying to throw himself down on the group. "I just... I need a second."

"No." She snapped, shaking her head and carrying him toward the den. "My apologies, darling but there is no time." She set him down on the marble floor and sped out of the room to grab a series of tools.

Klaus began feverishly trying to get the piece of white oak stake out of his back. He was scratching his own flesh off, leaving the wound on his back a bloody mess. Ingrid walked back into the room, empty handed. She rushed toward him, attempting to stop him from digging at his own skin. "Niklaus, stop!" She then reached for his face, stroking it soothingly with the pad of her thumb. When she spoke, she didn't sound like her usual self. "Hey. As much as I would love to watch you die, you still haven't found me that cure."

"Silas!" Klaus snarled and pushed the imposter of his wife away from him, falling to the floor weakly.

"That's right. Last night I looked like Shane, today I look like Ingrid, and tomorrow-who knows?" Silas rhetorically questioned with a proud smirk.

Klaus glared over at him and sneered through gritted teeth. "Show me your real face."

"Now why would I do that when I can look like whomever I want you to see?" Silas asked while walking over to the Original and Klaus shuddered in fear. "Resist me all you want, Klaus, but until you bring me the cure I will bring you nothing but misery." Silas disappeared and Klaus relaxed painfully.

Ingrid walked back into the room with a pair of pliers, a metal dish, washcloths, a towel, and a knife. She found Klaus, shirtless, sitting on the floor and leaning on the piano seat. She enters the room. "Okay, Niklaus--"

"I need more time. Stop hounding me!" He screamed at her, enraged, and she glanced at him in confusion.

"I--- what? Niklaus, I don't have the slightest clue what you are talking about." She remarked with furrowed eyebrows and walked further into the room.

Klaus rolled his head to the side and glanced at through narrowed eyes for a moment before realizing that it was actually his wife standing before him. "Ingrid. Is it really you?" He questioned in skepticism and Ingrid looked over at him, surprised. Klaus struggled to pull himself onto the piano seat and leaned back against the piano. "Prove it to me."

"What? How do you want me to prove it to you? Is this one of your jokes? Because, my love, it is not funny." She commented in annoyance and confusion, walking toward the piano and setting the tools down on the cover. "Niklaus, we do not have time for this. I will prove it to you in whatever way you want after we are finished. Now, turn around."

"It's you." Klaus said with a tired smile and let out a loud breath of relief.

"I'm glad you are over your delusions. May I get started?" Ingrid asked him in aggravation and waved the pliers in the air.

Klaus braced himself against the piano while Ingrid walked behind him and placed a hand on his unwounded shoulder in comfort. She then patted his back a few times in a nonverbal warning and began digging the white oak out from his back. Klaus screamed in pain through gritted teeth as she moved the pliers in his back. She dug a little deeper into his back and he yelled in pain, slamming his hand on the piano top.

She grimaced and gazed at him apologetically. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Did you want me to stop?" She asked kindly and stopped moving the pliers around.

Klaus shuddered in pain and let out a loud shaky breath. He gripped the piano tightly and shook his head. "No, no. Don't stop."

After an hour of digging into his back and proving to be unsuccessful. He moaned loudly in pain and turned his head over his shoulder to look at her. "I can feel the splinters moving towards my heart."

"Okay, I don't know what else to do!" She yelled in a panic, her hands covered in his blood and worried tears in her eyes. "I'm going to pull a rib out if I don't stop."

"Keep going! But distract me while you do it, please." He begged her desperately and stood up straighter.

"Can we move somewhere where it'll be easier for me to reach please?" She asked him softly then smirked slightly. "You are significantly taller than me, my love."

He nodded im understanding and pushed off the piano. He walked over and sat down on the floor. She walked over and sat behind him. One leg outstretched next to him and the other one folded underneath her. Her grabbed ahold of her ankle and wiggled her foot back and forth to distract himself from the oncoming pain.

She rubbed his lower back in a soothing manner and placed a kiss on his spine. Ingrid then whispered against his bare skin. "Okay, I'm going to clean off the blood then I'm going to start again." She warned, taking one of the wet washcloths and wiping away the dried, caked blood from his back. She picked up the blood stained pliers and hovered it above his shoulder. "One... two..." She counted down, purposefully avoiding three and driving the pliers down into his back.

Klaus tightened his grip in her ankle, breaking the distal half of her tibia and screamed out in pain. His ocean blue eyes flashing gold-amber.

Ingrid gritted her teeth in pain from her fracture but continued on. She sighed in relief when her ankle healed slowly. She didn't stop searching for the stake fragment until he grabbed her wrist and called out to her. "Ingrid..." He trailed off and remained silent for a moment. "It's gone."

"What?" She questioned him in confusion, leaning around him to glance at his face.

"The pain." He replied while reaching behind to his back. "The-the pain is gone." He remarked before slowly realizing something "It was-it was never there. He got in my head. Silas..." He trailed off, gesturing at his temple. "...got inside my head." He grabbed one of Ingrid's blood covered hands and kissed her knuckles. "Thank you."

She froze behind him as her eyes moved back and forth frantically. "Niklaus... If Silas is capable of making you believe that you're dying... what else can he do?"

The next morning, Rebekah, Elijah, and Klaus were sitting at a table together while Ingrid sat in one of the chairs nearby eating a whole tube of salt and vinegar Pringles with her feet propped up on the table.

"Elijah, being a human means a fresh start. I can grow old and have a family and fill my days with meaning, knowing that each one matters." Rebekah explained to her oldest brother, making her argument for wanting the cure.

Klaus snickered and glanced at her, amused and mocking. "Well, that was poetic."

Elijah turned toward him with a raised eyebrow and urged him to make is argument. "Well, if you can provide us with a more compelling reason for wanting the cure, Klaus, please."

"To destroy it." Ingrid replied in a dull tone of voice and shoved a chip in her mouth. "Oh! There's also the matter of Niklaus being absolutely terrified of Silas."

Klaus glared at her but she didn't turn to look at him.. "Silas can appear as anyone. He got inside my thoughts, convinced me I was dying. He will torment me until I give him the cure."

"And in doing so he will break down the wall to the Other Side." Rebekah reminded him with a stressful tone of voice.

"So it doesn't trap him there when he dies. He wants to reunite with his lost soulmate." Klaus finished for her then turned to Elijah with a incredulous expression. "You of all lovesick fools should applaud his devotion."

Rebekah slammed her hand against the table and spoke louder. "He will open the floodgates for every supernatural being that has ever died."

"Including our dear brothers, Kol and Finn. We'll have our family back." Klaus attempted to use as a reason for him to have the cure.

Rebekah scoffed and rolled her eye. "Please, you hated Kol and you kept Finn in a box for most of his life."

"Finn would go right back in too." Ingrid agreed with her point, scrolling through her phone and shoving another chip in her mouth.

Klaus grew aggravated at the way the discussion was going at turned toward the noble brother. "Elijah, please."

"Your personal discomfort might not be sufficient reason for putting the entire world in jeopardy, Klaus. I think our sister deserves a shot at happiness." Elijah replied, smiling at the blonde.

Klaus grew even more infuriated and snarled at them. "Tell me you're joking. Tell me you're not fating me to an eternity of torture."

"You are being melodramatic, Niklaus." Ingrid stated with an eyeroll and finally looked over at her husband.

Elijah glanced at Klaus with a stern expression and nodded his head curtly. "I made my decision."

Klaus swiftly stood up from his chair and leaned down to speak into Rebekah's ear. "When you're sick and dying, and you beg for my blood, I will laugh in your face and compel you to forget me." He harshly snarled then stormed out of the room.

Ingrid pursed her lips in surprise, caught of guard by his words, and sucked at the air for a second. "That seems like a discussion for later."

Rebekah remained carefully composed as she touched her hair and cleared her throat. "Where is the cure?"

Elijah glanced at her and folded his hands, pondering over his next statements. "Rebekah, it's no secret that you are impulsive, emotional, and at times morally questionable. Prove to me this isn't just another one of your whims, that you know precisely what you are giving up here."

Rebekah shrugged her shoulders, unaffected by this stipulation. "Fine. Anything."

Elijah held a single finger up, not changing his demeanor. "I want you to live a day as a human. This day. No vampire privileges-- no strength, no compulsion, no nothing. If you succeed, if you still believe this is what you want, the cure is yours."

Rebekah was surprised for a second, but released the tension in her body with resignation and accepted the challenge. She then walked out of the room and got ready for prom.

Klaus entered his bedroom to see Ingrid sleeping in the bed on her stomach. He smiled at her sleeping figure then noticed a folded letter propped against a glass decanter with "Klaus" written on the front. He picked it up, turned it over, and saw that it had a wax seal with the letter "K" imprinted on it. He opened it and read it over to himself.

Klaus, I hear Elijah has refused you the cure and in return, you have refused me my freedom. Shame on you both. But while you boys sort out your problems, I have one last thing to offer you. I've caught wind that there is a witch in New Orleans named Jane-Anne Deveraux plotting a move against you. Hunt her down. What she has to say will rattle you so deeply to your core that chasing little old me will be the least of your concerns. It's been a fun five centuries, Klaus, but I've worn down too many good heels running from you. Love, and hate, Katerina.

He threw the letter down then walked over to Ingrid and shook her slightly. She groaned but woke up slightly, peering at him through blurry vision. "What, Niklaus?"

"Pack your bags, my darling. We're going to New Orleans."

---
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