The Long Con

30 Epilogue

4 Months later.

Katherine sat down in front of the glass, annoyed by the stiff orange fabric she had been forced into after her big speech at the engagement party. She picked up the phone, mirroring the person in front of her.

"Prison looks good on you." Kai charmed, his attempts met with an icy glare from the brunette.

"I want them to suffer." She grumbled, both knowing exactly what she meant.

"Then we'll make them suffer." Kai pressed his hand against the glass that separated them. When she looked into his eyes and caught a glimpse of evil in his grin she knew he would take care of things for her.

~~~

"Care, hurry up." Stefan groaned as he stood near the door, leaning against his suitcase. 

"I'm moving as fast as I can!" She snapped back. She emerged from the bathroom of the hotel with a small bag filled with mini soaps and shampoos. 

"You know I can just buy you a regular bottle of shampoo when we get to Dallas." Stefan pointed out. 

"You've done enough for me." Caroline sighed, shaking her head. She zipped up her suitcase, ignoring his offers to help. "You're already cutting your trip short." She reminded him. 

"I can't run forever." Stefan shrugged. "Though Dallas isn't exactly what I would call home." He teased. 

"I know but we couldn't exactly go back to Chicago." It had been months since Caroline ran out of the engagement party and she hadn't heard from Klaus or even Rebekah since. She called Stefan after things had blown up and he invited her to join him on his trip around the world. While they no longer had the Mikaelson's money, Stefan had gotten enough from Katherine, and paired with his own family fortune and Caroline's savings, they had been travelling comfortably for months. They had planned to stay gone for a full year until Caroline made an unfortunate discovery that complicated everything.

"You should call him when we get back. He may not want to talk to you but he at least deserves to know." Caroline knew he was right but she couldn't bring herself to risk it. She rested a hand on her stomach, smiling down at the bump. 

"It's not like he would answer anyway" She pulled her bag off the bed and let it thump on the floor. 

"You don't know that." Stefan had known Klaus longer and wanted to have hope in his best friend but he knew how hurt the man must have been.

"He wants nothing to do with me." She mumbled sadly, wishing she hadn't completely destroyed the life they would have had together. "I can't ruin his life again."

~~~

"Aren't you supposed to be getting on a plane today?" Camille questioned as Klaus wandered into her bar for the 122nd day in a row. The small bar in New Orleans had become a common hangout for two heartbroken Mikaelsons. After the events at his brother's engagement party, Klaus found himself stumbling in and drinking far too much. A few days of this led him to get to know Camille. 

Klaus rolled his eyes at her and gestured for her to get him a drink. She scoffed at his hand gestures but retrieved one nonetheless. 

"Chicago can wait." He informed her after downing the scotch in his glass. She refilled it as he spoke. 

"You can't stay here forever." Camille sighed though she wasn't completely against the idea of him sticking around. 

"No, but I can stay for another drink." He grinned at her but she could see the sadness in his eyes. 

"Fine but only because I refuse to watch the travesty of your brother alone." 

Across the bar, Kol sat in a booth with his newest conquest. Following the catastrophe of his relationship with Bonnie, he had gone back to his habits of temporary companionship. His apartment was a revolving door of people he wished would make his pain go away. 

~~~

"Here, you should eat something." Elena had been crashing with her Aunt Jenna, too afraid to face her parents after what had happened with Elijah. 

"I'm fine Jenna," Elena assured her, not looking up from her computer. Elena had thrown herself into her writing, unsure where else to channel her pain. Elena couldn't stop thinking about Elijah. She hated what she did to him and wished she could take it back, even if it meant never having felt the love for him that she did. She had ruined both of their lives and she wasn't sure her heart would ever recover. 

"It's been months Elena. You need to face what happened." Elena glanced down at the ring on her finger. She hadn't been able to take it off, even after all of this time. If she took it off it made it all real. It was giving up and admitting that she had lost her soulmate. "It's time."

~~~

"Still no word from Elijah?" Rebekah asked her father. She had just landed in New Orleans to see if her brother had finally decided to go home. It had been months since Elijah had spoken to any of the Mikaelsons. He had gone completely off the grid. Rebekah had never seen her brother so devastated. 

"You mean since you asked yesterday? No." Mikael scoffed. "He's fine Rebekah. Just wounded pride for his idiocy." 

At first, she had wanted to let him have his space but she grew increasingly worried when he missed her birthday. The family had always been the most important thing to him. What happened with Elena had shaken him to his core and Rebekah didn't know if she'd be able to help him, especially if she couldn't find him.

She had to do something. She was the only one who could fix this. And she would. No matter what it took

~~~

"Bonnie?" Bonnie turned around, surprised to see her old history teacher behind her. She came to Amsterdam to escape her life, she wasn't planning on seeing any connections to her past.

"Alaric? What are you doing here? Where's Jo?" Bonnie questioned as he pulled her into an awkward hug. 

"She's home with the kids, I'm on a guys trip." He grinned proudly. As he spoke, two men walked up beside him. 

"Damon Salvatore." One of them offered his hand. Bonnie was shocked to have encountered Stefan's brother halfway across the world. Remembering the stories she had heard about him made her wary of the clearly charming man.

"Bonnie Bennett." She introduced.

"Bonnie was one of my students when I taught in Mystic Falls," Alaric explained. "Damon is one of my best friends. And this is my brother-in-law." Bonnie turned to the other man. He took her hand and gently placed a kiss on it.

"Kai Parker." 

"It's a pleasure to meet you." She spoke politely.

"Trust me, the pleasure is all mine." 

A/N The first chapter of the sequel "The Revenge Con" is now up!