"We're not helping you."

Maddy tried to slam the door in her face, but the woman swiped her hand out weakly. It was so unlike Katherine to be fragile. Had she been in a vampire body, surely she would have broken the door from how hard she pushed to keep Maddy from shutting her out.

"Please," begged Katherine, turning her head to the side and sniffling hard as if she was congested. "I wouldn't be here if I wasn't absolutely desperate. Stefan..."

Stefan sighed, taking pity on her. "What's going on?" He gestured for her to come in, ignoring the furious look his sister was sending his way. "Are you sick?"

"Yes," she said, pouting and glaring at the floor as if it was its fault. "I survived childbirth, the death of my entire family, and five hundred years of running from an immortal hybrid but now I'm on the verge of being defeated by a sinus infection!"

"Sweet, sweet karma," said Maddy with a wicked smile, not giving a single crap about her predicament.. "Now get to the point. Why did you go to Nova Scotia and try to screw things up in the first place? I told you to back off."

Katherine stared at her incredulously. "I let Hayley live!"

"But you went after the cure after I said not to. What the hell did you want with it?"

"When I heard Elena and Bon-Bon were going after it alone, I figured it was an easy grab. I'd kill them and no one would know I was involved. They'd assume it was too tough a terrain for them." She rolled her eyes. "I bet you told Klaus and he had a great time hearing about how miserable I am."

Maddy smirked. "Yeah, he laughed his ass off. Said you deserved it and whatnot for being an abusive bitch. Now tell us about these apparent stalkers or I will snap your neck right now."

Katherine huffed angrily. "I keep feeling that someone is watching me. Ever since I escaped Nova Scotia, someone has been behind me. A few times I caught sight of their faces but I have no idea who they are."

"Cute," said Maddy. "Your enemies found out and now they're trying to get back at you."

"This isn't funny!" snapped Katherine defensively before sniffling again.

"To you," said Maddy sweetly.

"Mads," said Stefan, holding up his hand. "This is now our problem because if someone's following her, then she just led them here."

The older Salvatore's smirk dropped. "Can't we just kill her and get this over with?" She stared at Katherine. "Why don't you just cut your hair, get plastic surgery, change your name, and fuck off? Or is running not as fun anymore now that you can't compel yourself any friends?"

"I just need a place to stay," she sniffled. "While this stupid feeling in my nose goes away!"

Stefan made the executive decision to let her stay, despite Maddy's insistence that they should kick Katherine to the curb.

"She knows more than she's letting on," said Stefan once they'd set Katherine up with a warm bath, some tea, and medication. "Maybe I can use her crush on me to our advantage. She might tell me."

"So what, you'll seduce her and go into her mind? We have enough problems with Damon literally being responsible for Kol's death. If you get into some problem with these apparent stalkers Katherine has..."

Stefan sighed. "Mads, he didn't do it on purpose. For once it wasn't completely his fault. It's been over a week, let it go."

Maddy stared at him. "Let it go? Damon's lucky Klaus didn't decapitate him for it! He's lucky Elijah and Rebekah didn't eviscerate him! Kol was kind to me, he helped us, and Bonnie loved him."

"Damon just told Jeremy to get the upper hand before Kol could manage to hurt him. Jeremy was the one who got Mayor Lockwood to put vervain in the town water supply and he's the one that convinced Elena to talk to Kol. He set the trap before he was fully healed of the vampire-killing alter ego. From there it just went downhill when they started insulting each other. I'm sorry about his death, really I am, but Damon didn't intend for that to happen. You two are always at odds. It needs to stop."

Maddy rolled her eyes. "He's the one that needs to respect my relationship."

"Mads, come on, don't be a brat, you don't exactly make it easy for him, either. You turned his girlfriend by force and didn't even go and check on her. He was too proud to ask for your help. Meredith struggled a lot and he didn't know what to do. Now she's more okay with it but she resented him a lot because of what you did, and he didn't know what to do. You can't get mad at him for disrespecting Klaus, who frankly has never been nice to Damon, then turn around and cause him problems with his relationship."

The older Salvatore just looked away, and Stefan sighed. "Point is, you both are at fault. I get it, you're closer in age, you two had four more years together than I did with you, I get that there will always be tension and a certain dynamic. But it's becoming a problem for the family. I watched you be in the middle of Damon and I's fights for years. You were miserable, and you're only just letting yourself be happy. The same thing is about to happen to me, having to be the middleman. Maybe I'm selfish but I don't want that."

She pursed her lips, looking away. "Fine. I'll talk to him. We'll... bond somehow. You take care of Katherine. Find out who's following her."

Maddy went to find Damon at Meredith's apartment. Thankfully, Meredith wasn't home, which saved her from having to make small talk.

"What do you want?" asked Damon gruffly, looking up from the kitchen, where he was for some reason cleaning the oven. "How do you—? Fuck."

She crossed her arms in the doorway. "You're cleaning the oven?"

"Yeah. Meredith wants to make something tomorrow and it's dirty. Now what do you want, Madeleine?"

"To fix things between us. Stefan's stressed out, I think his hero hair might start to fall out soon."

Damon snorted but didn't look up at her as he kept trying to scrub the panels inside. "We'll just go back to fighting the next time me or your boyfriend does something questionable. That's how it has to be."

"You shouldn't have helped Jeremy kill Kol."

"You shouldn't take Klaus's side for everything."

"I'm the only thing keeping him from killing you, you know? He's killed others for way less. It's because he knows I love you and because he knows I would do anything for you that he lets you live. If I took his side for everything, I would have allowed him to kill you. I'm sorry I turned Meredith, okay? I really am. I wasn't in my right mind and I did something awful that I regret."

He heaved a sigh. "Fine. I... apologize for helping to kill your boyfriend's brother. Is that it? Is Stefan going to stop bothering us both about this now?"

She slid her hand into her pocket, bringing out a small card. "Well... I figured some nice sibling bonding might help solidify this... rekindling of our wonderful relationship." She flicked the card to him.

He caught it, and looked over it, banging his head on the top of the oven as he jumped out. "No way," he said, narrowing his eyes.

"Yes way," she replied with a smirk. "Finally found another one. Just her and her nephew left. We've worked our way through everyone else. We owe it to Enzo to follow the pattern. Sara Whitmore dies today. I'll let you do the honors this time."

"My car or yours?"

"Yours."

They drove to Charleston, the two happy as could be, thinking of all the ways they could make Sara Whitmore suffer.

"After I've taken out the entire Augustine Society," murmured Damon, whose voice wasn't hoarse solely because he'd been drinking Enzo and Maddy's blood rations. "I'll kill every member of the Whitmore family."

"Boo!" said Enzo weakly, trying to reach for Maddy through the bars when he heard her snickering lightly. "I said use your imagination."

"Except one person," added Damon, making the other two vampires perk up. "I'll let that person grow up, start a family, and then I'll start killing Whitmores again. And then I'll take out the generation after that, leaving only one person to carry on the name, and then I'll take out the generation after that and so on, and so on, and so on."

"Mmm, we'll help you with that," whispered Maddy, managing to clasp Enzo's hand, squeezing it. "And then we'll go off and explore a continent we've never been to while we wait for the surviving family member to pop out another line of victims for us."

"Did you have a thing for Enzo?" asked Damon curiously once they were approaching the address written on the card Maddy had handed to him. "I feel like you were always touchy with him."

"Physical touch is one of my main love languages," said Maddy. "It's how I show my affection. And quality time of course. Enzo was more of a brother to me. In that time, even I hated Stefan. Enzo filled that hole I felt in my heart, knowing our brother hadn't come looking for us. If he had, he would have gotten us out or been trapped there with us, I know it. But he never mentioned it. And now Enzo is..."

"Don't mention it," murmured Damon. "Don't, Lils."

"It wasn't your fault, Damon," she said gently. "You physically couldn't get him out, neither of us could."

"Well, of course you couldn't, you hadn't had blood in weeks! I had the strength of two rations and I still couldn't... I just left him there. You were begging me to go back for him and I didn't. I just turned it off and walked out, dragging you kicking and screaming behind me."

"There was nothing you could have done," said Maddy quietly. "He was still in the cage, and they brought me out with you. Breaking that thing open would have required much more blood."

Damon was silent as they pulled up to Sara Whitmore's house. Casting one another a look, they nodded, before going to the front door and knocking.

Sara opened up the door, unsuspectingly. "Hello there," she said kindly. "What can I do for you?"

Damon looked into her eyes. "You could potentially allow us in to use your phone, because our cells are dead"

"Say please," said Maddy quickly when she saw that Sara's pupils weren't dilating. "I'm sorry, my brother has no manners— he forgot our chargers at home and I told him we should stop and charge but the idiot insisted we keep going, so can we please use your phone to call our other brother to meet us somewhere?"

Thankfully, Sara hadn't realized that Damon had been trying to compel her. "Of course," she said. "Come on in, both of you. Phone's through here. I was just telling my nephew Aaron that we shouldn't get rid of the landline, you never know when—"

As Maddy closed the door, Damon put Sara in a chokehold, silencing her. Maddy sniffed, not able to smell vervain on the woman's breath. She located a bracelet and ripped it off.

"Try again," she told Damon, who instantly said, "Stop breathing."

Sara squeaked, and immediately her ragged pants stopped, her face beginning to redden.

"Don't choke her where it leaves marks," said Maddy, forcing him to let her go. "She needs to die a very, very natural death so that this little boy Aaron doesn't suspect that she was murdered. We need him to be motivated to eventually have a family of his own. You know how it is, if someone thinks their family is being hunted or cursed then they will definitely not want to start a family of their own."

"Good idea," said Damon, noticing that no bruises had appeared on Sara's neck. Her lips, however, were starting to turn blue. "Hmm, okay, I won't feed on you then." He grabbed her shoulders. "Let's see if I get this right. Have a heart attack. Die."

Immediately, Sara let out a groan, and Maddy heard her heart beginning to race.

"Hmm," she said, watching as Sara sank to the ground. "It worked. Very nice to know. Her poor little brain couldn't resist."

They listened as her heard stopped beating, and grinned at each other.

They left the house quickly, and immediately started to drive home. In the meantime, Maddy filled Damon in on what had happened with Katherine.

"I hate to say this," grumbled Damon, "but she should probably stay at the Boarding House until we figure this all out. Whoever's after her could come after us, too. Any enemies she made could be vampires way older than us."

"Ugh, so that she can stay and flirt with Stefan more?" said Maddy. "It makes me want to vomit." Her phone started to ring, and she answered when she saw it was Klaus. "Hey. I'm in the car with Damon, do you want to talk now, or later?"

Damon looked mildly offended before remembering that there were certain things in Klaus's life that he probably didn't want anyone other than his girlfriend and maybe his siblings to know about.

"I don't care if he hears," said Klaus. "I'm surprised he's near you at all."

"We're making up for Stefan's sake," said Maddy. "Bonded a bit, killing one of the Whitmores. You remember me telling you about that, right?"

"Oh my god," said Damon. "You told him?"

"Of course I did," replied Maddy. "It's not just your trauma, it's mine too. He's my boyfriend, and he knew about Augustine before I even said anything about our experience. He's not going to tell anyone."

"No judgment from my end, mate," said Klaus. "I was calling to discuss the situation in New Orleans."

Maddy hummed. "I've been wondering when you'll finally tell me what's going on over there."

"We haven't been able to live at the Compound. We're at the old plantation house for the time being."

"Yuck, burn that place down. Why there?"

"Marcel is alive."

"What? How?"

"Apparently, Mikael failed to burn him that night. Since then he's proclaimed himself king of the Quarter."

"Marcel?" said Damon. "I knew a Marcel in New Orleans. Fun guy. Also a vampire, knew how to party."

"Pretty sure it's the same Marcel," said Maddy.

Damon scoffed. "Can't be. Who is Marcel to you, anyway, Klaus?"

"He was like a son to me. And oddly enough one of Rebekah's boyfriends, but let's not get into that."

"Nah, this definitely wasn't him. He wasn't elitist like you Originals."

"Was your mate named Marcel Gerard?"

"Fuck."

Maddy knew Klaus was smirking from the other line. "Same one," he said. "Marcellus was always quite different from us. Though he was raised by Mikaelsons, he became... his own person. Even now, he has rebuilt the city from the ashes my father left behind. However, he's somehow managed to keep the witches from doing magic. Rather curious thing, that they are so terrified of him. He has a weapon of sorts that he uses against them. Two Deveraux witches have already recruited our help in bringing down Marcel. They even made an alliance with the werewolves, who were forced into the Bayou decades ago. You won't believe who I saw."

"Who?"

"Hayley."

"I told you I let her live."

"I'm aware. She was accompanied by a rather disheveled bloke, apparently the Crescent Wolf Pack was recently liberated of a curse they carried by the two Deveraux witches. No spells required, just a cure. Seems Marcel had them cursed back when he ran the wolves out. A witch reversed their nature, to have their natural state be wolves, while they could only be human on full moons."

"Shit," said Damon. "That sounds awful. And this Hayley chick is with one of those wolves?"

"Apparently so. Jackson Kenner, his name is. It would seem the two were betrothed when they were younger. The point is, they will be keeping their ears against the ground for any whispers of what this weapon is. Marcel's right-hand-man Thierry is trouble, however, Rebekah will handle him. Elijah has already banned me from using Marcel's little girlfriend, a bartender named Camille, against him. Camille is studying to be a psychologist. I expect she and Jenna would get along well."

"Maybe take a shot at therapy while you're over there," said Damon, causing Maddy's eyes to widen.

Klaus pretended he hadn't said anything at all. "I will be learning more about how Marcel rules the Quarter in the coming days. I am working gradually to cement his trust. I wish to learn what this secret weapon is. I have lost two brothers. If this weapon could be used against an Original, I must be in control of it. Elijah, meanwhile, will be questioning the witches about their history, to determine why Marcel kept them from doing magic in the first place. They're a stubborn lot, these French Quarter witches, but they'll come around. Elijah seems to charm everyone he meets. He remains ever loyal to Elena, however. The lovesick fool has a photograph of her on his phone."

"Aw, that's cute," said Maddy. "As his lock screen?"

"I believe so. It's ridiculous."

"Well I have a picture of you as my lock screen. The one where you're standing behind that portrait you made of your wolf form."

A bit of silence. "Is one meant to place pictures that are appropriate for all audiences?"

"Uh, yeah," said Damon, making a face. "You don't put something explicit there, anyone could see your lock screen. You want a collection of naughty pictures of whatever the hell you two do, keep it in a private album, for fuck's sake."

"Shame, I suppose I can't quite utilize the picture I wanted. Perhaps the one I painted of you, Madeleine, wearing that sundress."

"That one's pretty. But you don't have to put a picture of me on your phone, Nik. It's not a requirement."

"I wish to. Anything you would like to mention from your end?"

"Um, well, we're hosting Katherine right now, unfortunately, because I guess someone was stalking her. Did you send people to follow her?"

"Why on Earth would I do that?"

"I don't know, to scare her. If it was you, just fess up so I can convince Stefan to kick her out of the house."

"It was not me. I hadn't the faintest idea that Katerina survived Nova Scotia until now."

"Alright, then. Well, I'm probably going to be keeping busy to make sure I don't see her. Might swing by Whitmore, see if the Augustine Society is still active. On that note, if I don't text you back for over a day, you should assume something happened and come check on me, pretty please."

"Are you expecting the Augustine Society to be active?"

"Not exactly but one can never be too careful."

"I could have someone else investigate."

"But I want to do it."

"I know you're strong and independent, love, but an older vampire would be far more resistant to whatever traps may lay in there to catch unsuspecting vampires. If the society is active, you may be caught."

"I won't go alone. I bet Damon doesn't mind coming. Do you?" Her brother made a face to indicate that he'd be happy to come along. "He'll be with me. And like I said, if I don't text back for over a day, I've most likely been trapped, and would very much appreciate being rescued."

"Very well, love. Be careful. I do not know the full extent of your torture there, however, I do worry they may have become more... cruel over the years. They may not keep you alive this time around. I choose a different time frame. If you do not text back in two hours, I will rush to Whitmore instantly."

"But in two hours I might just not have access to my phone."

"Two hours, Madeleine. In two hours, much can occur while investigating. If in two hours I haven't a single message from you, I will begin to make my way to you. If by the time I arrive, you are well, we could finish checking together. And if there is nothing, then at the very least I was able to see you. I miss you, love."

Maddy smiled. "I miss you too, Nik. I'll call you later tonight."

"I will be waiting." He hung up, and Damon groaned.

"It is so hard to hate him when he says shit like that," he grumbled.

She made a face. "You mean when he acts like a good boyfriend and tries to protect me while also giving me a certain degree of freedom for a dangerous situation I might get myself into?"

"Sappy shit. You two are gross."

"Like you don't call Meredith 'baby' and other shit. At least Klaus and I don't do that."

"Yeah, but 'love' is his version of 'baby.'"

"Heh I bet Meredith calls you 'baby.'"

"She calls me 'honey' sometimes as a joke. I return the gesture. Mostly uses my name, honestly. I call her 'Mer' sometimes and 'Edith.' She doesn't really like pet names."

"Did she want kids?"

"Nah, so we're both on the same page about that, thank fuck."

Maddy's smile dropped, and she turned her phone in her hand. Damon noticed, and raised a brow. "What is it?"

"I want kids," she said quietly. "Klaus doesn't. I suggested adoption in the future. And he was not even wanting to consider it. I genuinely thought that he wanted kids, Damon. I didn't think he was only going along with my joking words in the twenties. I asked him if he was interested in being the father of my children and he said 'Very.' And now he has no interest in ever being a dad again."

"Well, Stefan's like your son, isn't that enough?"

She frowned. "No, it isn't. I wanted to raise a family alongside him. I didn't know that we weren't on the same page until the other day that we discussed it. I don't know what to do."

"Tell him what you feel."

"Then he'll just feel guilty and cave in to make me happy and he'll end up miserable, and he'll resent the kid. Or I'll tell him and he'll remind me about his trauma and I'll end up giving up my dream and just feel like something is missing for the rest of my life. The best case scenario is that we take time to work through everything so that he's happy and willing to do this with me. But that's very unlikely."

"Nothing gets solved unless you bring it up, Mads, remember that."

"I know. I just need time to prepare myself for whatever happens. To be ready to hear him say that if I want to go through with it, I'll have to do it without him there."

"I mean you could do it. He'd just have to be 'Mom's boyfriend.' Solves everything. Then if he eventually wants to be more involved, he can be. But doesn't have to be, 'cause he'll never have been the kid's 'dad' in the first place."

"The problem with that is that if he isn't involved, it takes time away from the two of us because my focus will be on my kid. He'd hate the kid. And maybe even start to hate me. I don't know, Damon, this is driving me crazy. And yet I don't feel brave enough to bring it up to him yet. I need more time. I need to read books first about parenting and be thoroughly prepared."

"Whatever's best for you, Mads, you know it better than anyone. Just know that you don't live to serve anyone. Not a kid, not your boyfriend, and not even me and Stefan. You can do whatever the hell you want here, and no one gets to hold it against you. There's nothing wrong with you wanting to be a mom. Just like there's nothing wrong with him, and me, and Meredith not wanting to be parents."

She half-smiled. "I guess so. Thanks."

When they returned to the Boarding House, they found that Stefan had indeed made progress with Katherine.

"For starters," she said, "I'm hardly a Traveler. My father banned us from doing Traveler magic. He said it was the devil's work or something dramatic that terrified us, and then I became a vampire and never thought about it again. They know more about Silas and the cure than anyone else, because he was a Traveler, according to their history. They've wanted the cure for centuries, everyone who's anyone knows that. Obviously, the instant Maddy here blabbed to Klaus, it managed to reach their ears, and now, they're after me."

"I don't get it," said Damon blandly. "Travelers are witches, from what Kol said to Maddy. They could easily take you down."

"You don't get it," said Katherine. "Alone, Travelers are weak. Their spells basically can't happen at all because they can't channel anything that Traditional Magic witches use. So when it's one or two people watching me, they can't do much. But if a whole group of them shows up..."

"Hold on," said Maddy. "If you knew it was the Travelers watching you, why did you come here acting like they were complete strangers?"

"Because they are. I never knew them, never practiced that, and they have this annoying little tendency to jump into other people's bodies. Passengers, they call themselves. So I don't know if I'm just seeing things or if I'm actually being followed by a Traveler. It's impossible to tell. All I know is that I'm being watched and if I had to place a bet on who's following me, I'd bet it's them."

Maddy cast her a wry grin. "Well, you didn't sniffle throughout that whole bit so I'm guessing you're all better, which means it's time for you to fuck off so that the Travelers don't come after us."

"Not so fast," said Katherine before she could throw her out of the house. "They've already infiltrated someone here. Stefan, tell her."

Stefan sighed. "Matt came by today with Bonnie and Jeremy. He's been having these blackouts. Lost time. It happened ever since Elena and Bonnie went to Nova Scotia. I think the Travelers were here before Katherine. And I think one of them is already in Matt."

A/N: Sorry I hadn't updated, I'm moving to college this week so I've been really busy. Comment for more!