A/N: This is the sequel to 'A Touch of Insanity' and this chapter is the same as chapter 20 in that fanfic. You don't have to read that one to read this. The OC in this story is Lucinda Gilbert. Please favourite, follow and review! Love you guys!

Always and Forever

Prom wasn't what I expected. As I approached the Salvatore boarding house, I heard someone behind me. I whipped around to look at them, but no one was there.

The bush rustled, but still, no one was there. This was getting creepy.

"Hello?"

Bad idea, bad idea. That's what people say in movies before they get murdered. I really did not want to die.

I reached out to open the door, my hand shaking, but before I gripped the handle, I heard someone muttering behind me.

And then everything went black.

Lucy groaned and rubbed her forehead. Her head was killing her and it felt as if she was about to faint again.

She took in her surroundings. The room was dimly lit by candles and was extremely creepy. The last thing she remembered was being ambushed before she could get into the house. Now, she was strapped to a chair by the wrists and struggling to get out.

The Gilbert witch squinted her eyes at the straps, willing for them to open. Nothing happened. Maybe they were enchanted? She flicked her fingers at a vase, expecting it to smash into the wall, but again, nothing happened. The vase was still.

"I took your magic away," said a black-haired girl in skinny jeans. "Temporarily."

Lucy glared at her. "And when do I get it back?"

"When Klaus agrees to our plans," she told me, picking up a needle.

She scoffed. "What makes you think he cares so much about me?"

"Oh, he does," the girl said. "But he'll care about you even more when he finds out about the little muffin in your oven."

"What oven?"

She furrowed her brows, as if she was confused. Why would Klaus care about a muffin? Lucy thought.

"You're pregnant." Lucy raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "You didn't know?"

"I've only slept with one person in the past six months, and I'm positive he can't procreate," she countered.

"Klaus?" Lucy shot her a questioning glance. How the hell did she know all this? "Turns out, Klaus can have children, and you're carrying the first pureblooded-hybrid."

Lucy shook her head. "You're bonkers. Absolutely bonkers."

"Haven't you been experiencing symptoms of pregnancy? Vomiting? Excessive hunger?" she asked. Lucinda looked at her laps. She had been vomitting a lot lately, and her hunger was insatiable. "That's what I thought."

"Who are you?"

"My name is Sophie Deveraux," she said. "My sister Jane-Anne died so that we could do the spell to confirm your pregnancy. We're going to use you to get Klaus to help us take down Marcel."

"Klaus will kill you," Lucy growled.

"You don't think I know that? I've taken precautions." She approached me with the needle. Lucy flinched away from it. "Don't worry, it won't harm you or the baby. You're just gonna go into a nice slumber..."

Sophie left the restaurant through the back door. She lit candles on a small table, crying as she addressed her dead sister.

"Oh, you got me into this, Jane. Give me the strength to finish it."

The door shut behind her. Sophie whipped around and two vampire jumped into the alleyway.

"The doors work, you know," she snapped.

"You're doing magic?" one of the vampires asked.

"I'm praying to my dead sister. Go ahead, pay your respects."

"Don't make this a thing, Sophie. The hybrid was looking for Jane-Anne. Marcel wants to know why."

"I'd say ask her yourself, but I guess you can't, seeing as Marcel killed her," Sophie spat.

One of the vampires rushed to grab Sophie, but then he disappeared. Both Sophie and the other vampire looked around confused and afraid. The heart of the vampire that had disappeared fell to the ground. Before the other vampire could attack the Deveraux witch, he was grabbed by someone. He was thrown down the wall, a knife in his chest. Sophie stared at the dead vampire, as someone came up behind her.

"I'm Elijah. You heard of me?"

Sophie didn't know anyone who hadn't heard of the great Original in a suit.

She noddded. "Yes."

"So, why don't you tell me what business your family has with my brother?" Elijah suggested.

"This is sacred ground, which means vampires have to be invited in. But, since I'm desperate... Come on in," Sophie invited the Original inside the sacred grounds.

Elijah stepped over the once invisible barrier. "We can talk freely here."

"Then I suggest you start talking. What did your sister want with Niklaus?"

"Isn't it obvious? We have a vampire problem, and we need help. Marcel has an army backing him. The witches have been trying to fight back. We haven't had much luck, until I had a vision of witch. She had a special connection to your brother."

"What kind of connection?" Elijah inquired.

"Apparently, he was trying to seduce her for the past year. I believe you know her, actually. She wanted to kill some girl, he was helping her, one thing led to another and now this special witch - she's the father of the child she's carrying is your brother Klaus."

"That's impossible," Elijah stated.

"Nothing is impossible, especially not when it comes to your brother. Think about it - they call him the hybrid, right?" She raised her voice and spun aorund. "Bring her out!"

Three of the witches brought out the girl Elijah recognised as Lucinda Gilbert, his brother's infactuation. He liked the girl, since she brought out the humanity in his brother.

Lucinda was dazel and irritated. "Elijah," she said bitterly. "Come to save the damsel?"

Elijah grinned. "Give us a moment, please."

"So, have they been holding you here against your will?" Elijah asked.

Lucy nodded. "They kidnapped me when I was coming home. And then did some tests and rituals. Not that I have a clue how this could happen. Vampires are dead - they don't... they can't have children."

"You know my brother's story." Lucy nodded. "It seems his werewolf side enables him to have children."

"And I was lucky enough to be the miracle baby's mom," she said sarcastically.

Elijah laughed. "I never thought you'd give in to my brother's advances. You always seemed adamant that there was nothing there."

"Well - you know - the whole one-night stand thing. I was a little drunk, and now I'm knocked up. Total cliché," she said. "I'm not sure if there was anything there."

"He wasn't always like this - my brother," Elijah told her. "He used to be quite gentle and kind." Lucy didn't say anything. "I can show you, if I may."

She flinched as he attempted to lay his hand on her temple. "What are you doing?"

"Relax. If you open your mind to me, I can show you."

Allowing Elijah to touch her head, she closed her eyes.

"In the beginning, our family was human... A thousand years ago, now."

"Come, Henrik. Our brothers are fighting again," Rebekah said excitedly, rushing over to Elijah and Klaus.

"Although our mother dabbled in the dark arts, we were actually just a family trying to survive in a time when it was quite difficult to do so. And, for better or worse, we were happy. That is, however, until one night, our youngest brother was killed by our village's greatest threat."

Klaus carried Henrik's - their younger brother's - body home.

"Mother!" he cried.

"Men that could transform themselves into wolves during the full moon. Our family was devastated, none more than Niklaus. Desperate to protect the rest of us, our father forced our mother to call upon her black magic in order to make us stronger."

Mikael held up the arm of a human, which had been slip, in front of Rebekah. "Drink!"

Rebekah drank the blood hungrily.

"Thus, the first vampires were born. But with this speed, this strength, this immortality, came a terrible hunger. No one felt this hunger more than Niklaus."

Klaus attacked a human, draining them to the point of death.

"When he killed for the first time, we knew what he truly was."

Klaus' bones were cracking and he screaming. He was turning into wolf. Elijah and Mikael ran over to them.

"Niklaus!" Elijah yelled.

"What is happening to me?" Klaus asked, beads of sweat on his forehead.

Elijah tried to run over to his brother and help him, but Mikael gripped his arm and pulled him back.

"Don't!" Mikael shouted.

"Father! It hurts!" Klaus shrieked.

"He's a beast - an abomination."

She was brought back to present time. "He wasn't just a vampire," Elijah said.

"He was also a werewolf. The werewolf curse is triggered when you kill someone."

Elijah nodded. "Niklaus was the result of an indiscretion our mother had hidden from us all. An affair, with a werewolf."

Esther stood in front of a fire, muttering the words to a spell.

"Enfuriated by this betrayal, my father forced our mother to cast a spell that would suppress Klaus's werewolf side, denying him any connection with his true self."

Mikael was tying Klaus down to a wooden cross. "Elijah! Elijah, hold him down!" Mikael said.

"Brother, please! Don't let them do this to me!" Klaus begged. Lucy felt sorry for him. It wasn't his fault Esther couldn't keep her legs closed.

"Do it now, boy! Now!"

"Help me!"

Once again, she was brought back to present times.

"Wow. I mean, I knew your dad for a bit, but wow. He really was a dick."

Elijah chuckled.

"I thought you'd hate me since I tried to kill Katherine," she said.

"You had every right to want her dead," he replied. "Why haven't you tried to flee?"

"No magic," she explained, the corner of her mouth twitching upwards. "One of the witches - Sophie Deveraux - said that I'd get it back once you agreed to her master plan to take down someone called Marcel. Who the hell is he?"

"A vampire my family took in as our own many centuries ago," Elijah said. "Klaus taught him all of his tricks."

She nodded. "What am I supposed to do? My life and my child's life rests in my hands of a notorious psycho with sociopathic tendencies... who I slept with. Because I'm so intelligent."

"I cannot excuse his behavior, but you must understand, when our father hunted him – hunted us – for centuries, every time we found a moment of happiness, we were forced to flee. Even here, in New Orleans, where we were happiest of all. Not long after Niklaus broke the spell which prevented him from becoming a hybrid, he defeated our father, as you remember. I thought this would make him happy." Elijah shook his head. "He was angrier than ever. I wonder if perhaps this baby might be a way for my brother to find happiness. You are the only person my brother seems to genuinely care about, but along with the child you carry... I think I have found a way to finally save Klaus from himself."

"I'm glad you feel that way, because we need your help."

They turned their heads to look a Sophie.

"What, precisely, is it that you want and what does it have to do with this young woman?"

"We want to run Marcel and his vampires out of town," Sophie admitted. "Klaus is the key. Everything Marcel knows about being a vampire, he learned from Klaus. Marcel trusts him, looks up to him, and he won't see the betrayal coming."

"Yes, well, as I'm sure you're aware, my brother Niklaus doesn't like to be told what to do."

"That's why I brought you here," Sophie said. "Marcel drove the werewolves out of town decades ago and he despises witches. Do you really think he's going to welcome a hybrid-witch baby to the neighborhood? Convince Klaus to help us, and no one has to know about the newest member of the Original family."

Elijah looked amused. "That sounds remarkably like blackmail."

"Like I said, I'm desperate."

"Well, then, I have my work cut out for me, don't I?"

"Sophie Deveraux. What is this?" Klaus greeted as he walked into mausoleums.

"He's all yours, proceed," Elijah said to Sophie.

She looked to Klaus. "You know you're famous in this town? Witches tell bedtime stories about the powerful vampire Klaus. We know Marcel was nothing but an orphan street rat, until you made him what he is. And now he's out of control. He does what he wants, he kills who he wants. I'm gonna stop him, and you're gonna help me."

Klaus smiled, clearly amused. "This is why you brought me here?"

"Hear her out."

"I don't need to hear her out. I assure you, love, there is not a thing on this earth that will matter enough for me to waste even thirty more seconds of my time. Elijah, what madness is this?"

Lucy was dragged into mausoleum, two witches grabbing her arm. "I can walk you know!" Her eyes widened once she saw Klaus. "Klaus. Please listen to them."

Klaus looked from Lucy to Sophie, clearly angry. "And why is she here?"

"Marcel may be able to keep up from practicing real magic in this town, but as keepers of the balance we still know when nature has cooked up something new. For example, I have a special gift... of sensing when a girl is pregnant."

"What?" Klaus exclaimed, all trace of anger twisted into confusion.

"It's impossible, but-"

"What are you saying?" he asked Sophie.

"Niklaus... the girl is carrying your child." Elijah smiled.

"No. It's impossible. Vampires cannot procreate!"

"But werewolves can. Magic made you a vampire, but you were born a werewolf. You're the Original hybrid, the first of your kind, and this pregnancy is one of nature's loopholes."

Klaus tried to control his facial expression, but couldn't. He turned to Lucy and started shouted.

"You've been with someone else, admit it!"

She clenched her fists. "I've been couped up in a creepy mausoleum because - apparently - you can have children. Don't you think I would have fessed up and gotten the hell out of here if there was any small chance it wasn't yours? And besides, I come from a town full of sterile vampires, where the odds of someone being human is extremely slim."

"My sister gave her life to perform the spell she needed to confirm this pregnancy," Sophie interrupted, gaining everyone's attention. "Because of Jane-Anne's sacrifice, the lives of this girl and her baby are now controlled by us. If you don't help us take down Marcel, so help me, Lucy won't live long enough to see her first maternity dress."

My hand clutched my stomach protectively. "Wait... what?"

"Enough of this. If you want Marcel dead, he's dead. I'll do it myself," Elijah said.

"No. We can't, not yet. We have a clear plan that we need to follow, and there are rules."

"How dare you command me..." he said, his voice low but frightening. "Threaten me, with what you wrongfully perceive to be my weaknesses. I won't hear any more lies."

He edged for the door. "Niklaus. Listen."

Lucy was still in shock herself. She was pregnant with a hybrid baby and she was scared out of her wits. If Klaus didn't work with these witches - she'd be dead.

Klaus approached the pregnant witch. Her hand rested on her stomach. He heard the soft heartbeat coming from her abdomen. Listening in wonderment, he met Lucy's eyes. She smiled at him and Klaus felt guilty for some reason unbeknownst to him.

"Kill her and the baby. What do I care?"

He stormed out.

"No, let's not kill the girl and her baby," Lucy said, shaking her head. "That's not a very nice thing to do."

"No one touches the girl. I'll fix this," Elijah said and Sophie nodded.

"Niklaus," Elijah said, catching up to him.

"It's a trick, Elijah."

"No, brother. It's a gift. It's your chance - it's our chance."

"To what?"

"To start over. Take back everything we lost, everything that was taken from us. Niklaus, our own parents came to despise us. Our family was ruined - we were ruined. And since then, all that you have ever wanted - all that we have ever wanted was a family."

"I will not be manipulated." He turned away, but his annoying older brother speeded in front of him, blocking his way.

"So they're manipulating you. So what? With them, Lucinda Gilbert, the girl you have come to love, and her child - your child - get to live."

"I'm gonna kill every last one of them," he growled and turned away, but his brother blocked him once again.

"And then what? Then you return to Mystic Falls to resume your life as the hated one, as the evil hybrid? Is it so important to you that people quake with fear at the sound of your name?"

"People quake with fear because I have the power to make them afraid!" he snapped. "What will this child offer me? Will it guarantee me power?"

"Family is power, Niklaus. Love, loyalty - that's power. This is what we swore to one another a thousand years ago, before life tore away what little humanity you had left, before ego, before anger, before paranoia created in this person before me someone I can barely even recognize as my own brother. This is us, the Original family, and we remain together, always and forever. I am asking you to stay here. I will help you and I will stand by you. I will be your brother. We will build a home here together. So save this girl. Save your child."

Elijah placed a hand on his brother's shoulder. Klaus brought his hand to Elijah's neck in a brotherly gesture.

"No."

"Well, he's doing what he does; given a chance at happiness, Klaus runs in the opposite direction."

"Then let him run. That child, if it's even his, and Lucy are better off without him."

"He's not better off without that child, Rebekah, and neither are we."

"Darling, kind Elijah. Our brother rarely brings us anything but pain. At what point in your immortal life will you stop searching for his redemption?"

"I'll stop searching for his redemption when I believe there is none left to be found."

Elijah hung up. Rebekah placed the phone on the table and turned around, hearing a noise behind her. Katherine was leaning against the table.

"I'd give you a play-by-play, but you have the air of someone who's been lurking and listening."

"He'll come around. You know Elijah - he won't stop until he's convinced Klaus to do the right thing," Katherine replied.

"I know you consider yourself an expert in brotherly dynamics, but you don't know my brothers half as well as you think you do."

"You're wrong," Katherine said. "Klaus won't be able to walk away from this. He and I are the same. We manipulate, we thirst for power, we control, we punish, but our actions are driven by one, singular place deep inside."

"And what's that?"

"We're alone, and we hate it. Tell Elijah to call me when he comes home. I'll be waiting for him."

"Have I not made clear my desire to be left alone?" Klaus said, drinking beer from a bottle.

"Oh, you demand to be left alone at least once a decade. Your words have ceased to have impact," Elijah quipped.

"Why must you keep harping on about the baby?" Klaus yelled. "That child will never be born. In fact, Lucy is probably dead already."

Elijah rushed over to Klaus and wrapped his arm around his throat. "You will not walk away from this!"

"Let me go," Klaus said angrily.

"I WILL NOT!" Elijah yelled.

He threw Klaus onto the floor, but lifted him up again.

"Don't make me say it again."

"I will not let go. I will never let go," Elijah said. Klaus grabbed Elijah and threw him against the fence. Elijah stood up and took one of the iron rods. He approached Klaus, gripping the rod. "Even if I have to spend eternity saving you from your own stubborn, petulant, vile self..." He hit Klaus with the rod. "If I have to beat you as father used to beat you, to remind you of your own humanity –" He hit Klaus again. "– to care about anything..."

He attempted to hit him again, but Klaus grabbed the rod and struck Elijah with it repeatedly. He threw his brother across the room, dropped the rod onto the ground and approached his brother, breathing heavily.

"You're beyond pathetic, Elijah."

"Well who is more pathetic? The one who sees hope to make his family whole, or the coward who only see the world through his own fear?"

"I haven't cared about anything for centuries. Why on earth do you?"

"Because I failed you. Because the first time our father laid a hand on you, I should have struck him dead. I made a promise to you: always, forever, family above all."

Klaus laughed and offered his brother his hand. Elijah took his hand and stood up. "You are a sentimental fool."

"Perhaps. But I've lasted this long in spite of it, haven't I? And Niklaus, you care about this girl and you will care about this child. In a couple of months you will regret letting them both die, and I will make sure you don't have to feel that regret."

"He's willing to give up everything."

"Come on, Elijah, does that really surprise you?"

"I already see it. He's spiralling. He's lashing out in blind rage. You know, the last time I saw him like this it lasted two hundred years."

"Then leave him to his temper tantrum and come home. With any luck this misadventure will allow us a reprieve from all of his insanity. "

"He was so close. When he heard the baby's heartbeat, I could see it in his eyes. He... he wanted... he could almost taste happiness. And now his temper has destroyed it. Even if I was to return him to sanity, he just lost Marcel's trust. So, I'm almost out of time to get the girl. "

"Get her? Have you lost her mind? Are we running an orphanage now?"

"Say what you will about Niklaus, but on my life I'm not letting anything happen to the girl or that baby."

Lucy hugged her knees and leaned against the wall. The witches were talking about Klaus and Marcel. Again. She was tired of being a pawn in this silly little game. Her baby would be used as a pawn. It would never be safe. Nine months before it's birth, and it already had a coven of witches ready to kill it. It depressed her that an innocent child's life - her child's life - was in the hands of a coven of psycho, manipulative witches.

"Marcel and his vampires are out of control. Something had to be done," Sophie said to the witches.

"And the solution is to bring in more vampires?" another witch - Agnes - asked.

"These aren't just any vampires, Agnes. They're the Originals."

"What makes you think you can control the hybrid?" the elder witch questioned.

"She can't." Lucy turned her head to see Elijah. "I'm not entirely certain that I can, either. But now that your coven has drawn his ire, I have a question. What prevents my brother from murdering you instead of cooperating?"

Sophie picked up a needle and pricked her hand with it.

There was a sharp sting where Sophie pricked herself, which Lucy also felt. "Ow!" she gasped. "What was that for?"

There was a drop of blood on my hand, where Sophie had hurt herself.

"The spell my sister performed, the one that got her killed? It didn't just confirm the pregnancy. It linked me to Lucy. So anything that happens to me, happens to her, which means her life is in my hands. Klaus may not care about his own child, but it's very clear what it already means to you. If I have to hurt Lucy – or worse – to ensure that I have your attention, I will."

Elijah grinned at her audacity. "You would dare threaten an Original?"

"I have nothing to lose," Sophie said seriously. Elijah's face fell. "You have until midnight to get Klaus to change his mind."

The clock struck twelve. "His time is up. What're you gonna do now, Sophie?" Agnes asked.

"I'm gonna do what I said was gonna do," Sophie said, putting on a brave face.

"What, kill the girl? Kill yourself?" Sabine inquired, somewhat shocked and scared for her friend.

"Klaus does not care about the child," Agnes said.

"I do."

They turned to look at the eldest Original, carrying a body in his arms.

"And I bring proof of my intent to help you: the body of your fallen friend, which I procured from Marcel himself."

"Jane-Anne," Sophie obsevered.

"May she be granted peace. Klaus will agree to your terms. I just need a little more time."

"You had your time. It's passed," Agnes stated.

"Shut up, Agnes," Sabine snapped.

Elijah offered Lucy a hand, which she took. "For now, accept the deal. The girl and the child remain unharmed, or Klaus will kill you all." He walked away, but turned around before exiting the mausoleum. "And I will help him."

Elijah joined Klaus as he sat on the bench. "Are you here to give me another pep talk on the joys of fatherhood?" Klaus said.

"I've said all I needed to say."

"I forgot how much I liked this town," he said, looking around.

"I didn't forget. All the centuries we've spent together, and yet I can count on one hand the number of times that our family has been truly happy. I hated leaving here."

"As did I," Klaus said softly.

"What is on your mind, brother?"

"For a thousand years, I lived in fear. Any time I settled anywhere, our father would hunt me down and... chase me off. He made me feel powerless, and I hated it. This town was my home once, and in my absence, Marcel has gotten everything that I ever wanted. Power, loyalty, family. I made him in my image and he has bettered me. I want what he has. I want to be king."

"And what of Lucy and the baby?"

Klaus smiled. "Every king needs an heir."

"So is that all this child means to you? A grab for power?" Elijah asked his brother, somewhat disgusted.

"What does it mean to you?

"I think this child could offer you the one thing that you've never believed you had."

"And what's that?" Klaus inquired.

"The unconditional love of family."

He didn't reply for quite a while, but when he finally did, Elijah was delighted with what he said.

"Tell Sophie Deveraux we have a deal."

The house Elijah brought Lucy to was huge. She pulled a sheet off a crib and the dust caused her to cough.

"Are you alright?" Elijah asked, coming into the room.

"Just dust. This place looks biblical."

Elijah laughed. "Yes. It should serve our purposes. It's a sanctuary from our business in the Quarter. Right now, you are the most important person in this family. You need a good home. So I'm curious... in all this time, has anyone asked you how you feel?"

"About having a miracle, vampire-werewolf-witch baby?"

"About being a mother," he countered.

Lucy thought about it for a second. Everyone had been so preoccupied with getting Klaus to co-opperate, not that she expected any of the witches to give her the mother-daughter talk.

"My real mom gave me and Elena up and my adoptive mother drowned... But she was a good mom. She read me to sleep, sung me to me and raised me to be who I am. She's the woman I'll always call 'mom'. But I feel like I'm alone in this. I don't have my mom to tell me what to expect, even if she was here I'd still be scared... nobody has ever been pregnant with a hybrid baby before. There's no 'what to expect when you're expecting a miracle vampire baby' handbook." She laughed softly.

"I will always protect you. You have my word on that," Elijah promised.

Lucy smiled at him.

"And noble Elijah always keeps his word," Klaus stated from the doorway.

"Is it done?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. Your underhanded deal worked quite well. Marcel was only too happy to accept my blood even as he accepted my heartfelt apologies. His man, Thierry, yet lives and I remain a welcome guest in the French Quarter. My only concern now is this coven of impudent witches."

"I believe them to be honorable. They did release Lucy to me. Although, they haven't been entirely forthcoming. Marcel obviously has something that they need. They don't want him dead. There must be a reason why."

A/N: Don't forget to review and tell me what you think!