A/N- I'm hoping to explain a little more of Elijah's thoughts and opinions throughout the story. Also, Klaus stage name is being changed to Nik Wolfe.

The part of town Elijah had dragged them to didn't have upscale bars or even mid-range ones, according to her phone, unless she was willing to trek five miles in heels, she was stuck pinning her hopes on an imitation Irish bar that didn't even serve Guinness.

She's not even entirely sure the whisky they put in her whisky and soda is real but it's alcohol and right now, that's what she needs.

There's five people in the place and two are staff, the rest are customers who are propping up the bar and staring straight ahead.

She was the youngest person there by a good few decades and the bartender seems utterly shocked by her presence, trying to draw her into conversation but she has a downward spiral to begin and work tomorrow which greatly limits her free time.

Especially if Nik takes his brother up on that offer and she has to trawl the porn actors of the city for a charismatic blonde haired, blue eyed replacement.

Speaking of…

Nik doesn't cause as much of a stir when he enters the bar and what interest he does create dies down when he pulls up on the stool next to hers.

"Told you Kol would have been better," he says by way of greeting and helps himself to her third whisky and soda in an hour, wincing as the bad alcohol burns his throat.

"Elijah told you what he said to me?" she asks, and he thinned his lips,

"He did, but he also said you left without telling him to shove his suggestion up his arse so I'm not entirely certain he was being truthful."

In spite of everything, she smirks but it falls off her face a second later.

"I wouldn't be your friend if I didn't point out that this is a good opportunity for you." She admits with a sigh and spins on the stool to face him but he's already wearing a wry smile,

"It looks like a good opportunity," he corrects, "But it would mean being indebted to my older brother for the rest of my life,"

"Right now I'm independent, I have my own place, I've started a business and soon, I'm going to have savings and I might not be rich or even well-off by my family's standards, but everything I have I got by myself, I wouldn't trade that for anything."

He reaches over and takes her hand, "Sorry, sweetheart you aren't getting rid of me that easily."

If she smiles right now, she might cry so she settles for rolling her eyes, "Urgh fine, but you're lucky you're pretty."

His smug, victory sip of whisky is ruined by the terrible taste and he nearly chokes, "Right, your place has better alcohol, let's go get the car."

"We can't just bail on your brother." she argues, more for decencies sake than anything but he only shrugs, "I'm not across the rules of fine dining, but I figure once you call one of the guest's an arse the night is pretty much over."

"I didn't call him an ass," she interjects, grabbing her clutch as he holds the door open for them.

"I know," he grins, "I did."

Barely even twenty-four hours later, Caroline doesn't know whether to be impressed or concerned when Rebekah Mikaelson slides into her DM's.

Direct Message

Rebekah: Is Nik okay?

Even though she'd just spoken to him ten minutes ago, Caroline still looks up across the crowded penthouse to find Nik currently being flirted with by two or three different women.

From a distance, it was hard to tell whether one of them was flirting or wingmanning her friend.

Direct Message

Caroline: He's fine. Are you ok?

She hears her name called and tucks her phone away to smile as she's pulled in for a selfie. She manages

Direct Message

Rebekah: Elijah was a complete arse

Rebekah: Since our father died, he's been going to therapy

Rebekah: Not even because he needs it but because that's the thing to do

Rebekah: But I swear his therapist is the most judgemental bitch

Rebekah: I'm getting better advice of reddit than he's getting from her.

Rebekah: Everything he said last night was what she told him to say.

Caroline: I figured it was scripted.

The conversation falters then and she wonders whether she should try and ask Rebekah something basic to get it going again. How's school? What are your interests? What would your ideal season of the Bachelor be?

Then again, she is meant to be working right now.

Or rather, networking.

They were at a book launch. An erotic novel that wasn't actually too bad a read from what Caroline had skimmed over the last few days.

Nik had been the one to suggest the idea and score them invitations. After all, the publishing company was marketing this book as erotic yet healthy and consensual which was basically the theme of their own production company. Nik reckoned there was an untapped potential for women who read erotic fiction but hadn't quite crossed over into watching porn yet.

Seeing as the themed cocktails were delicious and the food was to die for, Caroline wasn't offering any objections.

It was actually fun to attend something that wasn't catered by and for the porn industry.

Although you wouldn't know it from the way Nik was being fawned over.

A lot of the women attending tonight might not be willing to watch porn, but they had a morbid fascination about male porn stars- possibly fuelled by the belief that they had incredible stamina and an active imagination.

Editing was a wonderful thing.

Caroline sees a familiar face and after a moment of running it through her mental rolodex, she places it as Jenna, the journalist that had attended their own launch party and left with Katherine.

She'd read all the articles that had been posted, most of them had been light page fillers with the writers hedging their bets in case Mystic turned out to be less than stellar in its treatment of women or failed.

She probably would have done the same thing in their position, but she makes her way down the stairs, across the floor and catches Jenna's eye, trying to judge the success of her company in the outside world by the woman's reaction.

She doesn't get a scream of excitement, but the woman also doesn't fake a call or pretend not to have seen her, so that's good at least.

"I was hoping to see you here," Jenna offers as an opening, "There's someone I want you to meet."

Caroline feigns polite interest and sincerely hopes that this 'someone' isn't a male fan looking to fulfil a fantasy.

Even if Nik wasn't currently keeping her satisfied, men outside of the industry didn't seem to understand just how much female stars acted and were often disappointed to the point of aggression if there wasn't lots of screaming and messy orgasms.

But Jenna doesn't seem to be leading her to any of the few men attending the party who weren't desperately hugging the wall or hiding on the balcony, instead she leads her to the kitchen; the only well-lit room in the penthouse where she found herself face-to-face with a woman in a business suit.

Which, even though she's dressed for the occasion, makes Caroline feel self-conscious in her pink velvet jumpsuit.

"This is a colleague of mine, Leah, she writes for Cosmo and mentioned she'd be interested in meeting you."

"For an article," Leah interjects before Caroline could even begin to get the wrong idea, "I'm doing research into porn for women."

Caroline offers her hand to shake and a friendly smile, "Nice to meet you, I'd be happy to answer any questions you have."

That's a lie but she's in her networking mode and figures that it wouldn't hurt to throw this woman a bone, especially if Mystic gets a mention in the process.

However, if she assumed that Leah would take the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone and interview her at the party, she was wrong; instead she finds herself being handed a business card and asked to email her to book in a time.

Which, considering she was the one asked to interview is a little weird but Caroline figures she could make it work, besides, her schedule was a lot more varied than a journalist's.

Nik chooses that moment to appear and he doesn't tip a cold bucket of water over her head, bringing her back to reality, but he does remind her that journalists love digging for the truth.

Her smile falters slightly before she fixes it back on her face and delegates part of her brain to begin planning for the interview while she uses the other to continue making polite conversation with Jenna, catching her up on Mystic's progress since they last spoke and their continued working relationship with Katherine.

She blushes when Katherine's name comes up, which is almost adorable.

Meanwhile, Leah looks so uncomfortable that Caroline wants to give her some sort of exit, an excuse to leave her alone so she could recover from the social interaction.

She settles for politely promising to be in touch and moving to the pool area, knowing Nik would follow her.

One hour and a few more cocktails later, she's jumping into the swimming pool with a few newfound friends and when she breaks the surface, she spots Leah making a quiet exit.

The next morning, Caroline wakes herself up with a few painkillers and a lot of water. She and Nik were filming later and there was only so much make-up and eyedrops could do.

And even though the anticipation is killing her, she manages to go through her entire morning routine, making it to her office before she allows herself to get excited about being interviewed by Cosmo.

She used to read it religiously.

Of course, as a teenager she'd wanted to be interviewed by Cosmo because she was a famous movie star, or brilliant event manager or something else similarly awesome.

But this was still an achievement and she was going to be proud of herself for it.

And Nik too.

Actually, she should probably give a shoutout to their whole team, it was only fair after all because they couldn't have done it without any of them.

She grabs her notebook to start writing down key points for discussion when something on her desk catches her eye.

According to the sticky note in Aiden's handwriting, she has one missed call.

From one Elijah Mikaelson.

Regarding an apology.

If that ass was expecting an apology, he'd be better off planning his next snow trip in hell.

"Aiden!" she calls, trusting that he was in the little nook on the upper floor that had become his work station/crash area for when they worked late.

He ambles into view and leans his shoulder against the doorjamb, "You hollered?" he teased, and she held up the penis-shaped sticky note,

"Seriously?"

He shrugged, "I'm not your receptionist, I just picked up the phone…we should probably get a receptionist by the way."

"I am not apologising to this asshole," she snapped, "So if you just pick up the phone again, tell him he can go f…."

"Actually, I think he wanted to apologise to you." He corrected, "He's still on the phone to Nik if you want to catch him?"

What?!

Nik's office was an empty space gathering dust, he preferred working on a couch on the warehouse floor, which is where she finds him with his cell phone in one hand and a nonplussed expression on his face.

"Uh huh…" he hums, "Right…"

She catches her breath and settles down beside him, he shifts over without even thinking or pausing in the conversation and she is forced to wait patiently, trying to eavesdrop but struggling to make sense of Elijah on the other end.

"I'm pretty certain I didn't give Rebekah my phone number but I'm glad that she gave it to you…yes, I'm sure Caroline will accept your apology and as soon as she gets in, I'll let her know you called."

"No, I don't think another dinner would be the best idea right now…or lunch…maybe coffee but we'll have to let you know…Kol wants to what?! Not in a million years."

Caroline perks up at that, turning her body to face his and he rolls his eyes, "Listen I have to go, I have a meeting…no an actual meeting…alright then, the next time I have to go film porn I will simply say so. Yes…no…goodbye Elijah."

He ends the call and tosses the phone onto the seat beside him, closing his eyes and releasing a ragged sigh.

Caroline only waits patiently and is rewarded a minute later.

"So, in lieu of his therapist's promised success with the script they worked on together, my brother turned to reddit, which I would have bet money he hadn't even known about, but they advised that he actually learn about my world and situation before making any further decisions or passing judgement."

She presses her lips together and fights to swallow her laugh but obviously isn't as great an actress as she thought because he rolls his eyes.

"Yes," he intoned, "This is my life right now."

"Also, my younger brother Kol wants to visit the set and asked him to ask me, I shut that down and if any Mikaelson comes with a kilometre of this place, I will lock all the doors and bar the windows."

"Your life is seriously weird." she offers as unhelpful consolation and he glares at her,

"Thank-you for the insight love, hope I'm not too distracted to give you a decent orgasm this afternoon."

She rolls her own eyes at him, "Well, I've been asked to an interview by Cosmo, so maybe I'll ask them for some tips…or Katherine Pierce."

He scowled and she chuckled as she walked away, contemplating the momentary excitement in their lives.

She also needed to find time in her schedule to call Elijah back, if he really was on an apology tour than the least, she could do is call him before she did a shoot with his brother.

She wondered if there was a book out there about porn star etiquette, or a blog? Maybe she could write something up for fun and offer it to Leah?