The moon hung low in the sky, casting a silvery glow over the Mystic Falls mansion. Tyler sat restlessly in the dimly lit living room, his frustration palpable. Caroline stood in front of him, her expression a mixture of concern and understanding.

"Chris was a friend, Caroline," Tyler muttered, his voice heavy with emotion. "He's like me, part of my pack. All he wanted was to break free from that disgusting hold..."

He trailed off with a sigh, his gaze finding Caroline's. She met his eyes, her empathy evident. After a moment of silence, he voiced the question that had been gnawing at him.

"How did you even convince Klaus to give up one of his hybrids?" Tyler's curiosity was tinged with a mix of admiration and disbelief.

Caroline offered a wry smile. "I agreed to go on a date with him," she revealed, her tone half-joking, half-serious.

Tyler arched an eyebrow, a surprised chuckle escaping his lips. "A date? Seriously?"

Caroline nodded, her eyes twinkling with a mix of mischief and strategic cunning. "I figured it might help maintain the facade between you and Hayley."

Tyler's frustration seemed to simmer beneath the surface as he poured himself another drink. The room felt charged with tension, an unspoken weight hanging between them.

Suddenly, as if unable to contain his anger any longer, Tyler's grip tightened on the glass until it shattered against the wall behind Caroline. She flinched at the unexpected explosion of sound.

Caroline's gaze shifted from the shattered glass to Tyler's clenched jaw, her concern deepening. She understood the turmoil that churned within him, the conflicting loyalties and the emotional toll.

Tyler heaved heavy breaths, his eyes set on Caroline who held a fear and saddened look. He glanced over Caroline's shoulder to see a figure appear in the doorway.

"How dare you!" she snared in a cold low voice but it did good on challenging the unsired Hybrid. Recognising the Hybrid voice, Caroline turned around swiftly with a gaping look.

Maeve stomped inside the room and stopped in front of Caroline, ignoring her attempt of saying something. "Who do you think you are?" she asked Tyler.

"You don't get to say anything. This is between me and Caroline."

"Then why is that sleepy wolf here?"

"Don't defend her, you don't know what she's done?" A dark scoff escaped Maeve's lips hearing him.

"So the band of misfits from Mystic Falls have suddenly started to see what actions of the people, rather than the reason why? Has the sun started to rise from the west?" she commented, ridiculing the entire group of friends.

"Maeve...let's go." Caroline pleaded. Maeve didn't waste another second. She took Caroline's hand and pulled her away from the room.

"Maeve..." Caroline began again but silenced herself with Maeve's words,

"Not here. My place. We need to have a long chat."

Caroline let Maeve guide her away. Maeve's bike was parked just outside. The ride to her apartment was shot given the speed at which Maeve rode her bike.

Both sat on the couch inside the apartment, staring at the wooden floor. "Tell me everything." was all Maeve said. Caroline took a long breath and began to narrate. She told her about the other girl in the room.

Maeve sighed. Both stayed in silence for a while. "How can you not see the obvious?" she asked Caroline with a saddened voice.

"Tyler's unsiring the hybrids, Mae, we need a distraction for it."

Maeve's jaw dropped open in shock. "Let me get this straight──Tyler...the guy who just threw a glass at the wall because he got that angry because you said yes for a date with Nik, is the guy who suggested that you two have a fake break-up to throw Nik off his back?" Maeve gave a significant look to Caroline. The blonde vampire kept her eyes on Maeve for a few seconds before she lowered them to the floor, a wavering whimper leaving her lips.

"It's not so easy..." Caroline mumbled, her lips quivering as she did. "I really love him."

"And he uses it to his advantage!" scolded Maeve, her anger flashing on her face. "Can't you see that?"

Caroline opened her mouth to say something but failed. "I told you that boy is bad news the first time you said you got together. Your boyfriend is asking you──his girlfriend──to fake a break-up while he frolics around town with a brunette girl──whom we know next to nothing about."

"Her name is Hayley. He met her in the Appalachian mountains while he was unsiring himself." Maeve rolled her eyes. She slapped her knees and got up.

"Wine?" she asked Caroline and made way to the Liquor cabinet. Maeve poured two glasses of sparkling Rose.

Caroline kept her eyes unwaveringly on Maeve as she moved around the apartment space and took her glass. "Aren't you going to say anything else?"

"I don't need to. I cannot speak more than I already have. It's your life. You decide whom to date, whom to love, whom to forgive and whom to kill. My job was to make you see what is actually happening. Now it's your turn."

Caroline nodded her head. Maeve set her half empty glass of wine on the table and faced Caroline. "Do you want to know about the Gala?"

Caroline's mood changed in an instant at the mention of the Gala. "First tell me about Elijah. You went off the grid with him. What happened there?"

For the first time in months, Caroline and Maeve felt like friends again, giggling and gossiping like they had for months before everything else happened.

"Thank you" said Elijah with a soft smile to the waitress who handed him the brown bag of takeout dinner. He had spent the entire day with Klaus catching up to speed with the progress with the Hunter from an old clan of Hunters called, 'The Brotherhood of the Five', a clan they all believed to have gone extinct.

Elijah settled in the driver's seat of his car and dialled Maeve's number. She had spent the day by herself, quoting 'not ready to face the whiny hybrid yet' and skipped away immediately.

The phone rang for a few seconds before she picked it up. Elijah pulled the phone away from his ear when he heard loud music come from the speaker. "shush! It's Elijah. Hi Elijah." answered Maeve, her words a bit slurred.

"Are you drunk?" he asked, his lips twitching.

"No...." she said, stretching out the word in mock wonderment, "Why would you say that? I'm totally fine."

Elijah smiled to himself when Maeve giggled following her words, "you're definitely drunk."

"He's onto us!" Maeve whispered to someone with her.

"Tell him you're busy."

"I'm busy!"

"I'm coming over." said Elijah igniting the engine.

"Get some for Caroline too! She's grieving."

"No I'm not! You are." Elijah didn't fight back the smile that appeared on his lips hearing the two bicker among themselves while the phone was still on.

"I'll be at your apartment in about two minutes."

"Quick! He's coming. We have to clean up! I told him I was cleaning up all day." The call ended just then.

Not even a minute later, Elijah parked the car outside the apartment building in which Maeve stayed. He picked up the bag and made his way up the stairs.

Elijah knocked on the door gently and waited. He could hear the shushing coming from inside over the soft sound of music. The latch on the door clicked and the door was opened by an ecstatic Maeve grinning wide at him.

"Elijah! The old Original is here!" she shouted spreading open her arms as a welcome.

Elijah walked past her directly towards the kitchen. He set the brown bag on the table and turned to greet a pouting Maeve.

"You didn't wish me." she complained crossing her arms over her chest.

"I'm sorry." he said unapologetically. "How did you even manage to get drunk?" Maeve blew a raspberry before she pointed at Caroline. Caroline sat on the couch, her legs folded, holding a bottle with a long neck in her hand.

"Hi Elijah!" Elijah reached over and took the bottle from Caroline's hand. He examined the label before looking up at Maeve with an amused look,

"Who gave you this?"

"Oh Swiper sent it with Diego." Maeve giggled before she snorted out a loud laugh, "Swiper...I remember when I gave him that nickname. Swiper no swiping!" she childishly kept repeating the sentence with a drunken smile. Maeve went up to the stereo and blasted the music she must have been playing all day. Whitney Houston's voice came through the speaker at a startling volume. Caroline raised her hands up singing along as did Maeve. Both giggled as they kept singing along off-key. The singing continued for a few minutes, at which point Maeve started dancing. She swayed her hips, a content smile on her face.

Elijah sighed seeing their drunken excitement and loud singing. He turned the music down and turned to look at Maeve. 'You need to go back to bed. You're wasted."

"I am not! The only thing that I am doing is having a great time." she told him poking his chest. "Dance with me, come on." She grabbed his hand to dance with her. Elijah was quick with his actions and caught her before she fell face front to the floor.

"You are wasted. Come." He gestured to the bedroom.

"You just want me to get in bed with you, don't you?" she poked his chest just as he went to grab her by her arms. "Caroline is still here."

"I can assure you I mean no business other than getting you to sleep. I promise." Elijah said with a soft voice, while resting his hands on her arms.

"I don't mind any funny business though." Maeve said smiling, but her eyes drooped a little. She leaned into his touch. "You're hot." Elijah didn't respond, instead he guided her inside her room and helped her to bed.

"I'm hungry." she said groggily. "What'd you bring?"

"Burgers. How about I get them for you?" Elijah offered. Maeve grabbed his face by cupping it with her hands and placed a long kiss on his lips. Elijah, although slightly taken aback kissed her back before he pulled away, tasting the alcohol in the kiss.

"I'll get the burgers." Elijah walked back into the kitchen and came back carrying the bag. Maeve patted the spot on bed next to her for him to take. He unwrapped a burger and handed it to her.

"Thank you Elijah." she said before taking a large bite of the burger.

"You're most welcome, Maeve."

"No...I mean, really, thank you." Maeve said after swallowing the bite. "Ever since the night in the cabin...I feel like I'm in a rom-com movie and you are my guy!"

"I'm your guy?"

"Yes." Maeve fell silent suddenly busying herself into eating the burger.

Elijah watched her silently. Her hair was lazily pulled up into a bun, a lot of loose strands falling out onto the side of her face and back.

Maeve suddenly broke the silence with a question, "Can I tell you something?"

"Anything."

"Would you like me less if I was crazy?"

"No."

"Would you still like me if I said I hear a voice?"

"What voice?" Elijah grew cautious now. His ears were alert as was his mind.

Maeve dropped her hands on her lap, her eyes lazily gazing into his, "there's a voice in my head. Ever since that night in the cabin──she talks to me. She tells me how strong I am and how dark I am."

"Maeve you are not a dark person. You simply have some but if darkness in you." Elijah assured her. "We all have that."

"But she says I can hurt you." revealed Maeve with tears in her eyes. "I don't want to hurt you Elijah. Any of you."

"You won't." He reached out and stroked a hand through her hair before he cupped a side of her face with his hand. His thumb rested on her jaw while the fingers were tangled in the hair.

"What if I do?"

"You won't. You are a far better person, a human than any of us. You may have the greatest strength in the world, but it only makes you a strong woman and not a bad woman."

Maeve gave him a child-like look, "You're too good and mushy for me." Elijah laughed at her words.

"I'll try to be less." He grabbed the piece of wrapper from Maeve's hand and used tissue paper to wipe the corner of her lips.

"Go to sleep, Maeve."

"Sleep with me." Maeve whined tugging at the sleeve of his blazer.

"Caroline is right outside. Let me check on her and then I'll come back." Maeve nodded her head muttering a quick 'okay'.

Elijah stepped outside to find Caroline passed out on the couch, snoring lightly
He took the blanket on the back of the couch and pulled it over Caroline. Elijah cleaned up the table, keeping the entra food in the fridge before he made his way back to Maeve.

Maeve had spread herself like a starfish on the bed, her lips parted and her asleep. Seeing this, he decided on leaving them be and returning in the morning.

With one last look, he exited the apartment and returned to the mansion with Maeve on his mind.

At the breakfast table in the mansion Elijah and Klaus sat in front of one another discussing Maeve.

"She doesn't remember anything?" Klaus asked reconfirming for himself. Elijah nodded his head. He tapped his fingers on the wooden table fidgeting since he had been worried and in his own head for hours.

"What next then? What is the problem?"

"I think the prophecy did not fulfil itself when she faced our mother."

"Elijah, she died." Klaus said aggressively. He sat up in his seat, glaring at his older brother. "She died just like the Prophecy said she would."

"Then why are her eyes still red and golden? Why does she still possess that same darkness we have seen on a few occasions? Last night..."

"What about last night?"

"Last night she told me...obviously drunk, that she hears a voice inside her head. This voice keeps telling her it is a part of her and sooner or later Maeve would have to accept her and let that darkness in." Dread was a feeling Mikaelson siblings never felt for someone who wasn't blood. Here they were after centuries of trouble and pain caring for someone else beyond than they would have if it was anyone else.

Neither of the four originals could put it into words why they cared so much for this one hybrid. Was it because she cared for them unlike anyone else? Or was it because she made them more human than they believed they were capable of? Something laid unacknowledged between them.

"Ezekiel must have already contacted a witch from the coven for help. Perhaps they would be of help."

"Maybe. What about us? What can we do?"

"For now, keep her occupied. The more she's busy, less the voice might have a say."

"Not a time like other then. This quest was cure would be a good distraction."

"What have you found so far?" he asked Klaus.

Another hour had slipped by, marked by the soft footsteps of Elijah returning to Maeve's apartment. This time, he carried with him a tray of carefully prepared breakfast, a selection of dishes that bore the distinct touch of his culinary skills.

The aroma of freshly brewed coffee mingled with the lingering scent of alcohol, creating an interesting blend in the air.

As he entered the apartment, the sting of the previous night's revelry was unmistakable. His gaze fell upon Caroline, still slumbering on the couch, her features relaxed in sleep. With practiced ease, he set the tray down on the table, arranging the dishes and pouring the coffee. His movements were fluid, though his mind was elsewhere, entangled in thoughts of Maeve's well-being and the haunting prophecy that had been revealed.

A low, almost indignant groan sliced through his thoughts, and Elijah's gaze lifted to find Maeve gingerly making her way into the room. A lopsided, amused smile tugged at his lips as her disheveled appearance caught his attention.

"Morning," he greeted with a teasing inflection."Screw you!" Maeve retorted with a grumpy tone, her voice betraying the discomfort that clung to her.

Elijah's chuckle rumbled in his chest as he watched her navigate her way to the table, one hand shielding her eyes from the intrusive sunlight that filtered through the window.

"How are you feeling?" he inquired, concern underlying his amusement.

Maeve sank into the chair he had pulled out for her, a groan escaping her lips as she massaged her temple. "Like death," she managed to articulate, her voice a mix of exhaustion and resignation. "Why did I drink so much?"

Elijah's smile remained, a mixture of fondness and amusement. He sat across from her, his gaze unwavering. "A sentiment shared by many after a night of revelry."

Maeve shot him a playful glare, her lips quirking despite her discomfort. "You're not allowed to be so chipper, especially if you didn't have the audacity to consume a barrel of alcohol last night."

His chuckle rumbled again, a rich sound that seemed to fill the room. "I'm sorry to disappoint, but I've never been one to overindulge in alcohol."

Maeve groaned again, and this time, it was a mix of frustration and the remnants of her hangover. "You're infuriating."

Elijah leaned back slightly, his eyes holding a warmth that seemed to transcend the teasing. Maeve playfully nudged his leg with her foot under the table, her gaze meeting his with a mixture of annoyance and fondness. "You're insufferable."

"It wasn't me who asked the other to get in bed." Elijah pointed out, a hint of mischief in his eyes.

Maeve drew a puzzled look at first before something particular struck her.

"Oh god! I'm sorry! Did I really say that?" Maeve asked, her cheeks flushed from embarrassment. Maeve shook her head, but a soft smile played at the corners of her lips. The conversation shifted, weaving in and out of light bickering and moments of shared laughter. As they ate, Elijah's concern for Maeve remained palpable, his actions gentle and caring, his words laced with a quiet reassurance.

And as breakfast came to an end, the plates cleared and the coffee cups drained, there was a shift in the air, a quiet moment of connection that hung between them. Maeve's gaze met Elijah's, and in that unspoken exchange, a deeper understanding seemed to bloom.

"Elijah," Maeve began, her voice soft, her eyes searching his. He leaned forward slightly, his expression attentive. "Yes?"

Maeve hesitated, her fingers tracing the rim of her coffee cup. "Thank you. For being here. For everything."

Elijah's gaze held hers, a depth of emotion reflected in his eyes. "Always," he whispered, his voice carrying a promise that transcended the words themselves.

"Can you do be less flirty this early?" groaned Caroline sitting up on the couch.

Maeve bit her tongue having completely forgotten Caroline in the last few minutes. "Sorry, Care. I forgot you were there."

"Of course, why remember me when you've got your own original vampire, huh?" she yelled at them.

"I got you breakfast as well, Ms Forbes." said Elijah moving the plate to the end of the table so Caroline could see the plates with eggs, bacon and sausages.

Caroline walked over to the table from the couch. She glanced at Maeve feeling her unsettling eyes on her. "What?" she asked Maeve.

"How the fuck do you still look beautiful? It's like you don't have a hangover at all!"

"But I do! If you're talking about the face than I guess the perks of being a vampire." Caroline bragged with a big smile. She took a large bite of the bacon and smiled at the taste of it.

Maeve grabbed Elijah's tie and pulled him close to her face, "turn me." she commanded.

Elijah released his tie from her grip and pulled away, "that is not a cure for hangover." he said with a laugh.

"Ugh! I hate you. Why did you let me get drunk? Ho---how did we even get drunk? I thought we had tolerance?" Caroline stumbled over her words, her face flushed with embarrassment.

"The alcohol you consumed is a rare brand." explained Elijah, "the brand is the only known brand who makes alcohol with herbs that cause can get supernaturals like vampire and werewolves to get drunk."

Maeve groaned once again rolling her eyes up. "I am going to kill Marcel!" she cried, her voice filled with anguish.

"I have to be at the Mystic Falls pageant preparations by ten. I'll get going. Maeve join me, please if you can." Caroline announced. she picked up the rest of the food from the plate and muttered a quick goodbye and exited the apartment. After a few moments of silence Maeve got up from her seat.

"I'm going to take a shower." she announced. Just as she reached the threshold, she turned around again looking Elijah, "Are you coming?"

**************************************
Hey guys! How's it going?

Are you enjoying these additions I make to the story? or would you just want me to follow the show's storyline?

Please tell me guys, your comments help a lot.

Let me know how you found the story.

Take care everyone!

Raven :)