Originals: Always and Forever (Klatherine)

Ch.8: Alive and Kicking

It was a beautiful day, as Kat finished up taking a shower and exited to put a towel on and getting ready.

Elijah entered to stand at the threshold of the open bathroom.

"Come to check up on me?" she assumed.

"You've had an eventful evening," he commented.

"Klaus took me out to make me feel better than I have been lately. We ran into some enemy witches. Most witches in the Quarter have hated me and wanted me dead for a long time. They deserved it," she informed him.

"So would you like me to remove your leftovers?"

"Don't judge, Elijah. What I did is no worse than anything Klaus has ever done. Or what I did as a vampire."

"I would hope that you'd hold yourself to a higher standard than Niklaus."

"I'm a hybrid now. I have a werewolf temper to go with my vampire appetite. Those that would come against me like those witches are worth nothing more than food," she replied, before walking away from him, out of the bathroom, to get dressed.

Later, Elijah was in a room with Klaus.

"You took her on a witch hunt?"

"I just simply let Katerina have her fun," Klaus reasoned.

"She grows more savage by the day. Can you not see she is falling apart?"

"Perhaps the problem is your high standards. Katerina is one of us now. Being a vampire only exaggerates what you truly are. Now that she's a hybrid, what she was as a vampire is more heightened. She knows she can never live up to the pretty little picture you paint of her in your head. Your judgement only hurts her more," he replied, while in a chair with an open book.

"I am trying to help her," Elijah told him. "And I asked you to help her, brother."

Klaus got up from the chair with the book still in his hand, looking at him.

"I am helping. You should have seen her last night, covered in witches' blood and smiling from ear to ear. She is embracing this. A little less criticism from you, and Katerina will be just fine."

"Niklaus, Katerina deserves much better than 'just fine'," Elijah replied. "Take her to the Bayou. Perhaps the wolves can reach her. Now, more than ever, she needs a connection to some of her humanity. Some degree of dignity," he replied.

Klaus decided, against his own judgement, to do as Elijah asked. He took her to the Bayou.

"You know, they're not going to welcome us with open arms. If there's one thing these people hate more than vampires, it's hybrids," she pointed out to him.

"What they hate is their lack of power. Hence the willingness for an alliance your friend, Jackson, agreed to."

"All we have to do is find them," she stated, knowing how well they were good at hiding.

"A task I leave to you. You're a hybrid now, with heightened senses unlike anything under the sun, besides me," he replied. "They need proper guidance. You're their greatest friend," he added to her.

"I am a mess right now. I cry all day. I feed all night. All I can think about is how much I miss my daughter, and how she's not coming back. All I want is to be able to move on, and to have the satisfaction of ripping out Lockwood's heart for what he did to her," she admitted to him.