"little Moony." came Ezekiel's happy voice over the phone.

"How've you been? Sorry I didn't call."

"It's okay. I knew when you didn't call meant Damon dragged you to whatever is happening with Elena."

"I volunteered for it." Maeve told him. "I had to take my mind off of..." she trailed off.

"I get it. I've been working too. Are you okay?"

"I feel okay. What about you?"

"I feel okay too. Mum is still in a little shock but I think she'll get better."

"I know I left suddenly, Zeke but..."

"Don't. We all have our own coping mechanisms. What's going on in Mystic Falls. Tell me."

"Firstly, Klaus is here. Met him."

"YOU WHAT?" screamed Ezekiel. "I want to know everything and I want to know it now. Don't you dare leave out any details." Maeve narrated everything that happened in the last forty eight hours. She didn't leave out any details, neither her thoughts nor the conversation she had with Elijah.

"Are you fucking nuts? Forget anyone and protect yourself. Striking up a deal for those ungrateful piece of shits was a bullshitty move. Why would you do that?"

"Because I care! I hate myself for caring but I do. I care about Damon, Zeke. I don't want Bonnie to die for Elena. I don't want Caroline to end up being collateral damage because of Elena. There! You have it! My fatal flaw. You happy?" shouted Maeve pressing her hand to her forehead.

"I'm not happy, Maeve. Nothing about that God forsaken town and it's people makes me happy. And it is not your fatal flaw. Caring can never be your fatal flaw. It is what makes you so much better as a person than the rest of us."

"Then listen to this..." Maeve told him the story of Klaus that Elijah told her earlier. She relayed her thoughts that she had when she realised the truth of the sacrifice.

"So you are confused. You think this but you know it's not the right stand given what everyone is thinking. Look, Maeve if you ask me, I'll say do what you must. Take a stand on what you believe in. Your gut feeling always seems to be true."

"Thank you so much. I'll talk later."

"Keep me posted with everything."

Maeve pushed open the front door of the boarding house and strode inside. "Morning Doppelganger, Vampires and Original."

She stared particularly at Elijah who smiled, "good morning, Maeve." his voice and that smile made her feel warm in her cheeks.

"Morning Maeve." wished Stefan standing up from the sofa to meet her halfway. She stood in front of him meeting his softened gaze.

"Morning Stefan. What's the plan for save Elena today?" she asked rudely crossing her arms.

"Tonight is the full moon. We should assume Klaus is prepared to break the curse." Elijah informed them.

"Elena said that the Sun and the Moon curse is fake? That it's actually just a curse placed on Klaus." Stefan asked him.

Elijah nodded along before beginning to explain, "Klaus is a vampire born of a werewolf bloodline. The curse has kept his werewolf aspect from manifesting. But if he breaks it...he'll be a true hybrid."

"Then why are we letting him break the curse?" Damon asked entering the room. "We can kill him today. With Bonnie."

"Damon..." Stefan began but Elena cut him off,

"No. Bonnie can't use that much power without dying."

"I'll write her a great eulogy." Damon replied earning an eye roll from Maeve.

"Do you ever use your brain or is it just there for display?" Maeve scoffed walking up to stand next to Elijah by the fireplace.

"It's not an option Damon." Elena blankly told him.

"All right, how do we break the curse?" asked Stefan deflecting away from the brewing argument.

"Well, the ritual itself is relatively straightforward. The ingredients, so to speak, you already know." Elijah premised.

"The moonstone." Stefan answered.

"A witch will channel the power of the full moon to release the spell that's bound within the stone. After that, Klaus, being both werewolf and vampire, will sacrifice one of each." Elijah added.

"And where do I fit into it?" Elena asked.

"The final part of the ritual." He approached to a shelf took bring out a wooden box. "Klaus must drink the blood of the doppelganger... to the point of your death." Damon looked at Maeve who stared back with an emotionless face.

"We can use Maeve. She's all too powerful. Her strength and power can take down Klaus." damon offered a suggestion. Maeve straightened her back at Damon's word.

"Excuse me, use me? I am not a pawn on a chessboard Damon that you can use whenever you feel like it."

Damon took a step ahead furrowing his brows, "you said you come from royal witches. Powerful and a thousand something year old history. It shouldn't be difficult."

"Let me lay out everything we know. Stabbed him──" she pointed at Elijah, "with wood. He came back up. You said you tried burning him, nothing happened. Clearly, they are invincible. And just because I am powerful, does not mean I am invincible. That much power can kill me, Damon."

Damon pressed his lips into a thin line, "you're useless." Elijah shifted his weight from one leg to another hearing Damon say that. Maeve's eyes narrowed first before she curled her fingers into a fist. Damon coughed before he fell to his knees. He coughed, his hands flat on the ground. He coughed strongly with splatter of blood. Blood dripped out from his mouth making Stefan leap to his brother's aid. Maeve didn't pay any attention to anyone's voice instead engrossed completely in making Damon fell pain.

Damon continued coughing finding it harder to breath with each second. Elijah looked at Maeve, seeing an unfamiliarity in her. Something that almost made the Maeve he knew a different person altogether.

Elijah placed a hand on her shoulder snapping her back to reality. Maeve flinched at the touch of his hand and uncurled her fingers stopping the spell. She turned her head to look at Elijah who held a straight gaze of worried look at her. She wrecked herself in nervousness. "Excuse me." she dashed past Damon and Stefan into the house finding herself in the kitchen.

"I'll go after her." she heard Stefan announce but it wasn't that what stopped her in the hallway just before the turn into the kitchen. It was the voice that came after.

"No." the cold voice of Elijah echoed through the house. "She clearly wants to be alone and going after her will only make it worse. For once learn to respect her and her boundaries."

"Didn't you see what she just did?" Maeve pressed her lips into a thin line at the sound of accusative tone of Elena.

"Didn't you notice how Damon spoke to his supposed best friend? Leave her be." Elijah dictated before he continued on to explain how he intended on saving Elena.

Maeve walked inside the kitchen cancelling out the rest of the conversation. She helped herself to some chocolate that undoubtedly Damon stacked just for her. She sat on the kitchen island kicking up her feet and crossing them. She was halfway through with the chocolate bar when she felt a presence in the kitchen. She turned her head to her right before she turned it back to look out the window in front of her.

"Thank you." she muttered. "For what you did back there."

"Seems I am the only one who understands boundaries and privacy. Not to mention the difference between what is invincible and what just appears to be one." he stated walking into the kitchen and to her side.

Maeve smiled tiredly dropping her hands on her lap. She offered the chocolate to him but he declined with a shake of his head. "My favourite book is Harry Potter, you know." she began taking in a shuddering breath,

"In that there is a character named Remus Lupin. He is knowledgeable, smart, funny. In the third book in the series, Prisoner of Azkaban offers the main character Harry chocolate saying that it would feel better. This was right after he faced Dementors; these vicious creatures that are known to feed on happiness of humans and making them feel as if there is no happiness around. It works you know. It real time too." Maeve looked at Elijah who was already staring at her.

"Chocolate helps?" he reiterated.

"It does. Calms those stupid nerves down. Especially when you're feeling murderous." She took a pause before continuing, "chocolate has always been my favourite. Damon stacks up on it just so he can get to me to get off his back. Usually when he's up to something shady and I know he's being impulsive."

Elijah opened his mouth but closed it again before he opened it again, "I am sorry for how Damon acted."

"He's just been a dickhead because things are not going his way. I know that."

"Doesn't excuse him calling you useless." snapped back Elijah.

"Didn't say it did, just stating the obvious." Maeve countered immediately. "I just want this all to get over. I'm tired of all of it. This week feels like a year and I want it to get over." Maeve told him, her frustration marring on her face.

"You can sit this out. No one is going to blame you or say anything."

"I am protecting those who don't know shit about everything. If I can then why not?"

"Because people don't care. Didn't you see what just happened?"

"I was there. I know!" Elijah closed his mouth choosing to not let the conversation turn into an argument. So did Maeve. Instead she decided to deflect,

"Can I ask you a question?" Elijah nodded turning to stand facing her. Maeve jumped off the counter and stood in front of him.

"But I don't want the vampire with murder on his mind to answer me, I want the brother in you who cares about his family above everything to answer me." Elijah stood stunned for a few seconds hearing her condition.

"Very well." he said. Maeve craned her neck up to meet his brown eyes due to the slight height difference between them. "Ask away."

"Do you really believe in your heart that Klaus would go to an extent of burying your family at sea?" her question silenced Elijah for a good entire minute. He didn't have a response. Hoe can one when that was the debate he's been in since the time he heard the news.

"A part of me wants to believe he didn't but than again, it's Klaus he can go off the deeper end to get anything."

"Well if you ask me, not that you did, but here's my take nonetheless, I think it's bullshit that you think that after a thousand years of undoubted ups and downs and all things siblings are always up to, Klaus is capable of just throwing them in the sea because he grew tired or something." Elijah shifted his weight, unconsciously both closing the gap. Standing just mere inches away.

"What?" she asked noticing a confused frown appear in the slightest on his face.

"Why do you think that?"

"Because a thousand years together, Elijah. It isn't two days that you've met that you think something so terrible is possible. However cruel one may be, family always has a soft spot. Sometimes it gets twisted but a soft spot is always a soft spot. The reason Tom Riddle became Voldemort was because he didn't have Love. And something tells me that's not the case here."

"You met my brother. He tried to kill Bonnie and yet here you stand telling me that maybe he has a heart."

"I didn't say he has a heart, I said he has a soft spot. Not the same thing."

"After everything. You witnessed my brother attempt to kill someone who would be dead had it not been for you, who is going to kill three people tonight and yet you believe he has something good in him?" Elijah asked her placing both his hands on her shoulders. He looked her right in the eyes, his gaze flickering from her eyes to her lips. He tried avoiding but he couldn't.

His voice was low when he said, "for someone surrounded by violence and power and grief and pain, you choose to see good in the world. Why?"

"Because I lost myself for a whole year because of paranoia and only seeing bad in the world. My promise to my grandfather was that I will no longer be that person. So yes, I refuse to jump to the conclusion that your brother, however he may be a vindictive man, might not be capable of doing the crime you believe he had done."

The honest belief that world isn't so bad, the faith in the heart and the simplest form of beauty allured Elijah. Maeve was undoubtedly a very different girl. Neither realised it at first but both started to lean in, none of the two resisting the pull. Their lips hovered over, a sensation of warmth running course through her veins and over Maeve's skin.

"Jenna! It's me you have to believe me." the sound of Alaric Saltzman made Maeve pull away urgently as her feet carried her out of the kitchen. Elijah stood there for a few seconds before he followed her, the air still heavy from the possibility of what was about to happen had there not been a disturbance outside.

"Prove it" she demanded.

"Uhh, the first night we spent together Jeremy walked in―"

"Okay it's him." 

"Why did he let you go?"

"He wanted me to deliver a message. The sacrifice happens tonight."

Maeve walked away leaving Alaric with Jenna and the couple in the living room. She found herself scanning the tall bookshelf in the library. She knew Elijah would follow her.

"Should I be at the sacrifice?" Maeve asked as Elijah stood next to her.

"Its up to you. But, if you ask me knowing you tried killing him, and what happened just now, I would advice against it." Elijah suggested. Maeve opened her mouth to respond but stopped seeing Elijah look at her as if realising something.

"What happened?" Maeve asked tilting her head.

"Damon fed Elena his blood." Maeve smacked her forehead at Elijah's words.

"I always knew he was a love sick fool. He just doesn't learn no matter how much I tell him, Elena is using his attention for her to her advantage. He doesn't want to agree with me that she is infact the new Katherine. You know what, I think I'm gonna go to the Grill──yeah, get myself a cheese burger and a beer. You coming?" Elijah shook his head,

"No, thank you. I think I'll wait here as there is a new turn." Elijah said cryptically making a reference to Damon's actions. It both angered and worried Elijah knowing how much Maeve cared, even if the people didn't deserve it. He watched her walk away, a lingering feeling of what almost happened still tense in the air around.

Maeve devoured the cheeseburger she ordered for herself ignoring the sulking older Salvatore sitting next to her. Alaric arrived and took a seat between the two, gesturing for the bartender to pour him a drink as well.

"I screwed up." said Damon with a groan.

"When do you not?" retorted Maeve with a mouthful.

"Gentleman and lady, why so glum?" A voice with an accent spoke from behind them. Maeve turned her head around only to come face to face with a man with curled dirty-blond hair. Maeve didn't need guesswork to know who he was.

"Was wondering when you'd show that real face Klaus. How's it going?" Maeve nodded her head before she returned to her burger.

"Wonderful now that I am in my original body." he answered her before looking at Alaric, "thanks for the loaner mate."

"Any reason you stopped by to say hi?" Damon asked keeping his eyes on his glass of bourbon.

"I heard you and your brother fancy my doppelganger. I thought I'd inform you not to get in my way if you wish to live." Klaus threatened.

"So I suppose I couldn't talk you into postponement?" Damon inquired incredulously.

"You're kidding." Klaus let out looking at the two sitting next to Damon. "he's kidding right?"

"Not really." Alaric said with a shake of his head.

"Believe me, one of the rare moments he is serious." Maeve commented dusting off her hands.

"I mean, what's one more month in the grand scheme of things." Damon commented with a shrug of his shoulders and a false smile curling on his lips.

"Let me be clear. I have my vampire. I have my werewolf. I have everything that I need. The ritual happens tonight. If you want to live to see tomorrow, don't screw it up." Klaus concluded and started to walk away. He turned around just a step away, "one more thing──" He said raising his hand. All three turned to look at him and before anyone could ask, he grabbed Maeve by her arm and speeded away leaving Damon and Alaric speechless.

Klaus finally let go of Maeve stopping by his car. Maeve shot him an angered look, "are you kidding me? Did you seriously just kidnap me?"

"Yes, I did. Think of it as me making sure you uphold your end of the bargain. Wouldn't want you going back on your word."

Maeve scoffed, "you and Elijah really are similar. You don't go after the names I mentioned and I don't interfere with the sacrifice. I don't budge." she crossed her arms shooting him a glare.

"Yes. I know. Caroline Forbes was the vampire Katherine had for the sacrifice. Now it is someone else. Happy?"

"Will be when you get out of this town once and for all." Klaus stepped closer to Maeve trying to intimidate her but she didn't move.

"You are acting awfully brave, Maeve. I would suggest losing that attitude before I lose my temper."

"Don't think I can't handle myself against you. That would be you underestimating me." Maeve shot back. "Now, are we going to gossip here or what?"

Inside the Grill, the two men were still staring at the door. Damon was the first to look away. He finished his drink and slammed the glass back down.

"That was fun." Damon commented.

"You're going to screw it up, aren't you?" Alaric said knowing what might be going on inside Damon's head.

"You think if I took his werewolf out of the equation she might get over the fact I tried to turn her into a vampire?" 

"It won't matter because you'll be dead. Besides, think about Maeve. Don't you think he might kill her if you meddle in?"

Damon gulped down his drink, "Elena not becoming a vampire is more important, right now. Maeve is more than capable of defending herself. And without the werewolf he can't perform the ritual which means I would have bought her one month until the next full moon."

"And you'll still be dead." Alaric added.

"You gonna help me or what?"

"What do you want me to do?"

By the Quarry, a little away from there was an abandoned house where everyone gathered to plan a way to stop the sacrifice. Alaric arrived there feeling out of breath.

Stefan, Bonnie, Jeremy and Elijah stared at him waiting for the news he carried. "Klaus came by the Grill today. He took Maeve with him." Elijah and Jeremy looked alarmed at the news.

"We have to save her." Jeremy announced already on stepping ahead to walk away.

"We have to save Elena first. Maeve can handle herself." Bonnie assured Jeremy.

"He'll kill her Bonnie!" reasoned Jeremy looking up at Elijah, "will he?"

"He might. Someone almost as powerful as him. He might kill her for that reason alone." Elijah grimly informed them.

"We have to help her."

"Jeremy! We have to help Elena first. We don't even know where he's kept Maeve. Besides, Klaus won't kill Maeve. Not yet atleast." Stefan deflated. "Come on, we have a plan to put in action." saying so Stefan walked away. Everyone followed suit but Jeremy stood next to Elijah who stood his ground deep in thought.

"Do you really think he'll kill her? Shouldn't we help her?"

Elijah wanted to help her. He really did but he also knew that she was safe for now. "Maeve to my knowledge made a deal with Klaus. She is upholding her end of that bargain."

"What is that?"

"She won't interfere with the sacrifice and he protects those she cares about."

Jeremy's scrunched his nose in disgust, "tell me one of them is not Damon."

"As unfortunate as that is, it is true." Elijah sassed turning to walk to the place of sacrifice. "Maeve will be fine. I promise you once I have killed my brother, I will get Maeve back."

***********
Damon groaned as he came back to his consciousness from having his neck snapped. Just as he sat up with pain Maeve bombarded him with a question,

"Were you even planning on helping me or did you come here solely for getting Klaus to back down?"

"Would you relax? I knew you could handle yourself. What's so bad that you're yelling?" Maeve forced his sleeve up and pointed to the werewolf bite on his arm that had begun it's infection.

"This. This is what's so bad. How could you be so irresponsible?"

"Don't be like that. As for not coming here to save you. Again, you've got witchy powers and an Alpha. I knew you'd handle yourself." Damon turned to Katherine. Maeve excused herself as the two discussed something in a low voice.

Damon turned to move out of the apartment but stopped at the threshold because of Maeve, "what if he had killed me Damon. What if I couldn't handle myself? Would it have mattered over Elena?" he didn't respond and instead walked away closing the door behind him.

"That was rude." commented Katherine.

"Why do you care Bitchy woo? Mind your own business." Katherine walked over to the kitchen area where Maeve sat,

"Does it bother you that since you became supernatural your best friend isn't treating you right? Is treating you like a rug that too the use and throw kind?"

Maeve glared at her, "he's just got a lot on his mind."

"Tell yourself whatever you want. I can promise you, everything will be furthest away from truth." Katherine coldly asserted before moving away leaving Maeve in a confronting silence.

**************************************
Thus begins the SLOW BURN

How'd you like the chemistry between Maeve and Elijah?

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Take care everyone

Raven :)