*This part is written in 3rd person*

"Let me do the talking," Elijah tells his little brother as they walk up to the Gilbert residence. 

"You can do all the talking you want, Elijah," Kol assures him. "But when it fails, we will do this my way," He smirks. Elijah sends him a look. "Be annoyed with me all you want, brother, but I have permission to do whatever means necessary to get Nik back and I plan to take full advantage of that," Elijah presses his lips together.

"If I fail," Elijah tells him. "You don't do anything until my part is over," He states. Kol rolls his eyes but remains silent. The two brothers walk up the steps toward the door.

"Elijah," Stefan tenses. "Kol,"

"Hello, again," Elijah smirks. Kol just stares the people within the house down eagerly awaiting for his brothers failure. Inviting Kol in, rather reluctantly, the two brothers enter the home.

"Elijah, what are you doing here?" Elena asks, not noticing Kol at first. When she does, her body tenses. Kol's smirk deepens, soaking up the tense atmosphere. 

"We're here to get my brother back," Kol speaks, stepping forward. "Mind handing him over?"

"Kol," Elijah says, his annoyance towards him amplifying. Kol rolls his eyes.

"Elijah's going to throw you a pitch, real business like," Kol tells them. "Should you not accept what he has to offer, I'll give you my pitch which you won't have a choice in," Kol smirks. "Choose which brother you want to deal with wisely," With that being said, Kol moves away allowing Elijah to retake the spotlight.

"Perhaps we should have a seat," Elijah says motioning towards the kitchen table. Elena shares a look with Stefan before both agreeing to sit with Elijah. Before they begin, Stefan calls his brother in order for him to stay up to date. "I understand your actions against my brother but you also need to understand that he did what he did to protect someone... important to us,"

"Kat," Elena states. Kol growls warningly. "It's true then... She's your mate,"

"Careful," Kol advises. Elena glances at him before quickly looking away.

"Yes," Elijah nods. "She is our mate. Alaric poses a threat to her, a threat we will do anything to get rid of," Stefan tenses. "We are willing to compromise and get rid of Alaric without killing Elena,"

"How?" Stefan questions.

"We do the same plan you had against Niklaus," Elijah tells him. "We desiccate Alaric and allow Elena to live the rest of her natural born life,"

"And what of Klaus?" Elena asks. "We finally stopped him, Elijah. After everything he's done to us, I can't just let you bring him back," 

"I cannot promise that Klaus will not go against you again but I will give you my word to try and rein him in," Elijah tells them. "But we cannot allow you to keep him desiccated,"

"Why should she trust you? All you've done is screw her over," Matt comments. Kol rolls his eyes struggling to keep his mouth shut. 

"And for that, I am deeply ashamed," Elijah apologizes. "But know this, she could have been dead the instant we walked through the door tonight," He warns them, his voice hardening. "So Elena, I leave it to you to make the decision whether to trust me or not,"

"Not!" Damon shouts through the phone. "Hello? Did that concussion give you brain damage?! His lunatic siblings will kill you the first chance they get!"

"We will kill everyone should you keep our brother from us, you have my word on that," Kol speaks up. Everyone glances at him. Kol stands by his brothers side. "Elijah is giving you the chance to resolve this with minimal bloodshed, I will not be so kind,"

"So, do we have a deal?" Elijah questions Elena.

"No! No, no, no, no, no! Did mention no?" Damon shouts causing Kol to smirk.

"So, bloodshed it is?" Kol claps his hands together and rubs them. He licks his lips, his eyes bouncing from person to person. "Who shall I start with?" He hums.

"Fine," Elena gives in knowing Kol wasn't bluffing. She also knew Elijah wouldn't stop him. None of them are strong enough to go up against Kol and if Elijah decided to join him, she knew they'd be destroyed. "We have a deal," Kol pouts but nods.

"So, you have a brain after all," Kol smirks.

"So, what's the plan?" Elena asks.

"My sister will go and collect our brother," Elijah explains. "You will get Alaric to go to a spot in the woods where I will keep him occupied until one of my witches desiccates him,"

"And Kol?" Stefan questions. Kol smirks.

"I'm going to stay here and if anything goes wrong, I'm going to snap your neck," Kol smirks at Elena. "So, it's gonna be you and me tonight, love," Kol winks at her.

"Don't worry, as long as we get Niklaus back and Alaric gets desiccated, no harm will come to Elena," Elijah assures them.

"But seeing as almost everything depends on you guys, you're bound to mess something up," Kol shrugs. "I'd get your affairs in order, Ms. Gilbert," Kol states, Elijah standing up.

"Jeremy, call Alaric," Stefan says knowing he's talked to him earlier. Jeremy slowly nods grabbing his phone. Kol and Elijah watch as the boy calls the hunter, listening as Alaric falls for what Jeremy tells him. When Jeremy hangs up, Elijah leaves to meet up with Alaric while Kol makes himself comfortable.

*Back to First Person*

"Kat? What are you doing sitting in the dark?" I practically jump out of my skin when my mothers voice reaches my ears. She flips on the light, temporarily blinding me.

"I didn't even realize it had gotten so dark," I admit, a small pathetic laugh leaving my lips. When I sat down after Kol and Elijah dropped me off, the sun was still in the sky. Now, however, it's long gone and I am, in fact, sitting in the dark without realizing it. 

My mind has been racing since Klaus was taken. I felt as if I couldn't sit still but at the same time I couldn't move. I kept going over the argument Nik and I had gotten into at the dance. It was our last interaction and I didn't want that to be how we ended.

My mom presses her lips together and she sits beside me. Being near her caused the hairs on my arms to raise. I didn't know what to expect. The last few weeks she's been... distant and cold. I didn't really want to deal with her mood right now.

"What's going on?" She asks. I glance at her wondering if she was truly concerned or just nosy. I didn't know if I could talk to her or not. I didn't even know how I could explain what is happening nor did I know if she'd even want to listen. "Does this have something to do with your... mates?" I look her in the eyes for a moment before looking down at my covered forearm.

"It's complicated," I mutter, looking back out the window that shows the driveway. I waited for the three of them to come back to me. I didn't even want to think about the possibility of Alaric getting to even one of them.

"I can't say that I know what you're going through but I do have some experience in this area," She says. I glance back to her. "You're father didn't exactly abandon us like you and your sister think," She tells me. "It wasn't that simple,"

"What happened?" I ask her, shifting to face her more. Slowly, my worry for my mates began to sink to the depths of my mind as I recall the memories of my father. Unlike my sister, I could never hold any ill feelings towards him for leaving us. I still feel love for him and hope that he'll return some day. All the memories I can remember of him are happy and filled with love. Why would a man who I remember loving me as much as he had leave without a reason? I didn't exactly believe it.

"He found his soulmate," My eyes widened a bit. Soon, the missing pieces of my father's abandonment slowly begin to fill in. "I think her name was Josie. I hate to admit it but she's beautiful... and annoyingly kind," She grumbles leaning back into the seat. "Your father tried to fight it but fighting it brought serious repercussions. He left me for her. It only took him a month to fall completely in love with her and to divorce me," There's bitterness in her voice but most of all there's sadness in it as well.

"So, he gets with Josie and leaves us?" I ask, trying to make sense of her story but nothing seems to come together. My mother bites her lip and slowly shakes her head. My body fidgets on the cushion as I try to silently encourage her to continue. 

"I was so angry," She whispers. My breathing slowly escalates when I see tears begin to fill her eyes. "I felt betrayed, heart broken, and I just... I lashed out," She says, trying to justify the actions she hasn't told me about yet. "He left me, but he didn't leave you and Erica," Her eyes slowly lift to look into mine.

"Mom... What happened?" I ask, not entirely sure if I could hear the truth but at this point I needed too.

"I pushed him away," She tells me, staring into my eyes. I felt as if our eyes are locked together and that at this point we couldn't look away if we wanted too. "I yelled at him. We argued and screamed until one night I took you girls and left," My teeth capture my bottom lips as the tears cloud my eyes. Flashes of my memories with my father swarm my mind. "When I finally calmed down and realized my mistake, I tried to make it right but I couldn't find him. He and Josie had practically disappeared," She told me, her voice becoming more desperate the more tears that fall down my face.

"You..." I whisper, my voice cracking. I press my lips together tightly and lower my head. I release a shaky sign ignoring my mothers sniffling.

"I tried to find him, please, believe me when I say that," She begs, reaching for my hand but I pull it away.

"You're the reason I didn't grow up with a father, because of your jealousy," I whisper, my eyes returning to hers. "He tried to make it work, right? He didn't mean to hurt you, right? Or am I getting the story wrong?" I ask, trying to stay calm. I didn't want to make assumptions, I wanted the story to be clear but it was hard for my mind to stay unmuddied. 

"Right..." She whispers, a few tears falling down her face. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," I slowly shake my head standing up.

"You chased my father away!" I bellowed. "Because you were jealous he had something you didn't!" I snapped, before stepping back again. She pushed my father away because he had something she didn't... Erica's pushing me away because I have something she doesn't. "Does your jealous matter more than the love you have for others?" I whisper, backing away from her.

"I was young! I had two babies, I was scared-"

"Don't," I snapped, pointing my finger at her. "According to you, he tried to make things worse. It was you that got jealous and ran! He had something you couldn't have so you took us away so he couldn't have us! How selfish can you be!?" I screamed, feeling my heart beating erratically.

"I'm sorry," She whispers, wiping her tears away. "I can't change what happened, I can only apologize,"

"Are you sorry for your jealousy? Or for the fact that you ran away with my father's children in the middle of the night? Or the fact that Erica and I grew up without a father? Or the fact that Erica turned out to be just as jealous and selfish as you are?!" I shout at her. "I am so relieved that I'm not like you because I cannot even fathom being so selfish," I shake my head. "I don't even know who you are," I whisper going toward my room ignoring her quiet cries.

When I entered the room I slammed the door shut and leaned against it. I tried to calm down but the tears continued to come. I felt as if I were drowning in memories and the what if's. 

What if I grew up with a father? How would Erica and I have turned out?

What if my mother never ran away and we never came to Mystic Falls? Would I have met my mates?

What if I never find my father? Do I even want to look for him?

What if I do find him? Would he even want me? Would he remember me? Would he care?

I managed to pull myself out just enough to grab a duffle bag and stuff it with everything I could grab. I didn't know if I was getting everything I need but I got most of it. All I knew was that I needed to get out. I can't stay anymore.