Maddy couldn't sit still.

Klaus and Elijah had left immediately to find Aurora. What Maddy and Elena had found odd was that just before they exited the house, Elijah had tried to tell Klaus something about Aurora, but Klaus had insisted that he didn't want to hear it. Maddy recalled Tristan's words, telling her about the secrets they were being kept from her. Was it possible that Aurora had cheated on Klaus with Elijah? Was that why she'd broken things off with him?

"I'm gonna go and talk to Tristan," she decided, once Elena had taken Anita back to her room.

"Are you insane?" shrieked Elena.

"Maybe I am," said Maddy. "He told me she wouldn't be a problem. But now she's here making threats. I need to know what he knows."

"This could be a trap! What if Aurora is with him? What if she's just waiting for you to know up?"

"Somehow I doubt that," said Maddy. "He's to Aurora what I am to my brothers. The protector. He told me she's suffered a lot because of the Originals. He said he didn't want her involved. He must have been trying to keep her from finding out about this, but somewhere along the way, she came to know of it and took matters into her own hands. I don't think he actually knows that she's here, and if I'm right, then I need to tell him right now, and see what else I can worm out of him. This is the optimal moment for me to find out if he's a bigger liar than Lucien, or if he's the more trustworthy of the two."

Elena wasn't sure how a conversation with Tristan would help her figure that out. She was powerless in stopping the other woman from leaving the house.

Maddy ran through what they currently knew while she looked through the city for any sign of Tristan.

One, Lucien could not be trusted. He was trying to find some sort of weapon and he was definitely up to something. He was the one with the advantage here, because he clearly already knew what he was looking for. Had he killed Alexis? Doubtful. His grief had seemed far too genuine. He was also still very much in love with Aurora, and a very bad feeling had Maddy thinking that he wanted more than just Aurora when it came to getting revenge on Klaus.

Two, Tristan could not be trusted. Either he'd lied about Aurora or he didn't have as much control over his sister as he thought he did. Maddy didn't think he'd killed Alexis, either. Honestly, if there was a witch talking about the downfall of the Originals, she would expect anyone to want to keep her alive as long as possible to find out as much as they could. But for Tristan to have pointed a finger at Lucien was suspicious. Had their relationship really shown no improvement in the past thousand years? They arrived in the city within days of each other. Maddy didn't think that was a coincidence.

Three, Hope was safe, when it came to Lucien and Tristan. She posed no benefit to them, and she definitely didn't pose a threat. If they wanted Hope, they could have gotten her very easily. They'd both definitely been watching them before they arrived in the city. They could have easily kidnapped Maddy and Hope with ease if that was what they sought. Even if she could sire hybrids, that meant nothing because one, they were vampires, and two, hybrids would have a sire bond to Hope, not to them, so it wasn't like they could make them do anything.

Four, Aurora was the one they needed to be focusing on. She was the only one who'd approached the Originals without claiming she was there to protect them. She hadn't approached Rebekah at all. Obviously, she had something else in mind, and Maddy needed to find out what it was. She was the one who could potentially hurt her, and hurt Hope. Whatever secret the Originals were keeping from her, whatever Elijah had been about to say, it had to do with Aurora.

Out of all places, Maddy found Tristan at Rousseau's.

"Madeleine," he said, surprised when she walked up to him while he was finishing a drink. "A pleasure to see you again."

"Wish I could say the same," she replied, sliding into the seat across from him. "What was it you said to me? That I didn't need to be worried about Aurora? Then tell me why my daughter just witnessed the sight of a dead body in our courtyard."

He showed no signs that he knew that the 'daughter' she mentioned wasn't actually Hope. He looked genuinely concerned, and leaned forward. "Whose dead body?"

"I don't know," said Maddy. "It was just some girl. But the note left with her read, 'Roses are red, lavender is blue, come find me before I find you.' The body was laid in a bed of lavender springs. Klaus immediately told me it was Aurora's doing. I'm assuming lavender is her signature of sorts."

A man suddenly approached them, noticing the way Maddy was glaring at Tristan. The older vampire waved him off, and Maddy figured he was some sort of bodyguard. "I need you to be honest with me," continued Maddy sharply. "Do I need to get my daughter and book it from here or am I safe to stay in my own home?"

"I assure you," said Tristan, and she could only just hear his heart racing nervously. She was convinced that he genuinely hadn't known that she'd come to New Orleans. His heartbeat sounded like that of a person who had lost control, someone who was surprised. Not a person who was being sneaky. "I had no intention of bringing Aurora here. If she's made it here..." he sighed, "then it means she has escaped the sanctuary that was caring for her these past decades. Years ago, she fell into one of her dark periods. It's been a long one, and has yet to lift. I saw she got the care she needed. As resistant as she was, the treatment was helping her."

"Klaus and Elijah already went to find her," said Maddy. "I imagine they've either already found her or will find her soon."

This seemed to surprise Tristan. "Elijah accompanied him?"

"Yes. Though, he did try to say something before they left. Klaus didn't let them. And earlier you mentioned secrets. What don't I know, Tristan?"

He ran his tongue over his lips. "You needn't concern yourself with that. Aurora may be toying with them from afar. There is no way she is here."

"What makes you say that?"

"I'm the first person she'd come to if she was here."

"Are you sure about that? It seems like you weren't a fan of her relationship with Klaus before. She likely knew you wouldn't react well to her having broken out of her rehabilitation facility. And she likely knew you would stop her from confronting him. If Klaus is convinced she's here, then so am I. He knows her, I don't. Tristan..." she gave him a serious look, "if she gets it in her head that I'm someone she wants to hurt... if she comes after me... and if my daughter suffers because of it... I will fight my hardest to rip her apart. Just like anyone else in the family would. Hope is our everything. I don't want to make assumptions about the state of her mental health but considering ancient vampires in general tend to be careless about who they hurt... my daughter may be collateral damage to her and I won't stand for that."

"Rest assured," said Tristan, "I will not allow my sister to harm you or your daughter."

"But you're not in control of her right now. What guarantee is there that you can stop her from coming after me?"

"I have associates who will help me with that."

"The Strix, you mean?"

The skip of a beat. So miniscule that she almost didn't notice it. But for months already she'd learned to listen as closely as she could to hear Klaus's heartbeat. And because of that, she had fine-tuned her ears enough to pick up on even the faintest of noises. Tristan obviously wouldn't have expected her to hear it considering the age gap between them. But she did notice it. And she knew that he was lying when he said, "Yes, of course." No, certainly not. He definitely didn't mean The Strix. Who, then, were these associates? Who else didn't she know about.

That confirmed it. He was working with someone else. Was it Aurora? No. But someone else was part of his plan, whatever it was, and Maddy was going to find out who.

"Are you sure I can't find out the secret?" she asked a bit sweetly, to keep him from realizing what she'd found out. "I don't think Klaus or Elijah will tell me."

Tristan pursed his lips. "Niklaus does not know. You will find out, likely later today. I don't wish to inform you earlier, I fear that knowing would only cause you more distress. I promise you, I will learn what Aurora's business here is, and I will keep her from laying a hand on you and your child. I admit, I am not very fond of children, but you... remind me of my own mother. Before she died."

"That's a little weird," said Maddy awkwardly.

"Only because it's so evident how much you care," said Tristan more gently. "How much you are willing to sacrifice for your daughter. My mother was married to a horrible man. The one I was forced to call father. And despite it, she was an angel to us. She stood up to him. She protected me. It hurt me greatly when I learned that she died. But she gave me a gift that day. My little sister. Almost every vampire around the world has heard by now the tale of the day you birthed your daughter. How you fought to keep her alive. How it killed you. A mother's love is the most precious thing in the world. And I can admire how much you have changed Niklaus into being a better version of the man I knew him to be just decades ago. You likely don't realize how much your daughter has gained solely from your influence. Were it not for you, Niklaus would surely be an absentee father. Or worse, an abusive one."

"He would never have been an absentee father or an abusive father," Maddy said confidently. "He always had it in him to be a good father. He just didn't believe in himself, before." She got to her feet. "I must get back. Thank you for this. It was most enlightening."

She walked off, ignoring the way his bodyguard just glared at her.

She went to the Compound, where the servants had already cleared away the lavender and the dead body. Elena shot up from the rocking chair, Anita still in her arms the instant she walked in. "Well? Everything okay?"

"He's working with someone," said Maddy. "But it's not Aurora. It may just be Lucien, though, so we'll see about that..." She quickly typed a text to Marcel, asking for Tristan's number. "If there's one thing I like about ancient vampires, it's that they're not very good with modern technology when they're as uptight as Tristan and Lucien are. I mean, it took forever for Klaus to figure out that he could type what he wanted to say instead of writing it with a stylus and sending images of his written words. Chances are, they don't know how to stop someone from tracking them..."

Once she got Marcel's number, she got her laptop, finding a few phone numbers for Lucien Castle online and using them to start creating a map of where these phones were. A few of Lucien's were in other states, but one was right in New Orleans, which is the one she focused on. For now, Tristan was still at Rousseau's.

She opened a different tab, searching for Kingmaker Land Development and trying to find a list of all buildings they owned. She isolated those who were in New Orleans or in surrounding cities. A few were just random warehouses and one was the building where Lucien lived. Maddy made sure to mark those on the map just in case.

Elena came to peek over her shoulder, looking at the map curiously. "Oh, Tristan's on the move..."

"That he is," said Maddy, narrowing her eyes as she followed the little dot she labeled 'T.' The dot moved out of Rousseau's, stopped for a moment, before beginning to move quickly, but not as fast as a vampire might move, which suggested he was likely in a car. The two women continued to track his moment until Elena shrieked out, "Lucien's on the move, too!"

The dots labeled 'L' and 'T' met at a random location on the map, before they both vanished, as if their phones were turned off.

"Oh, shit," murmured Maddy. "Lucien and Tristan are working together." Her phone chimed. "Marcel says he's coming here. Elijah's on his way back to meet with us."

"Just Elijah?" whispered Elena. "What about Klaus?"

Maddy blanched, not having thought of that until she mentioned it. "Right. Not... Klaus. Which likely means he's with Aurora. Alone."

"Hey," said Elena quickly, seeing the way Maddy's eyes became glued to the floor, "he's not a cheater, we know that for sure."

"I know," said Maddy softly. "But she could hurt him. Or she could... try to manipulate him in some way. I don't want to feel insecure or jealous but... I do." She shook her head quickly before Elena could say anything else. "Let's just go downstairs. They'll be here soon."

Anita was asleep in Elena's arms by the time Elijah and Marcel arrived.

"What's this meeting about?" asked Maddy once the two men were in front of her.

"You asked for Tristan's number," said Marcel. "Not long before that, Elijah had asked me to tail him to see what we could find out. I had a guy stay on Tristan's tail, and he followed him to this place called the Candide Royal. He goes in, never comes out. So obviously, he was using it as a way to get to somewhere. The building has hidden passageways leading out the back. Now, bootleggers used them in the twenties to run booze to a secret storehouse on Dauphine, and you'll never guess who just bought that storehouse."

"Kingmaker Land Development," deduced Elena.

"I tracked them," said Maddy, holding up her phone. "We saw Lucien and Tristan were in the same place before the signal was lost."

"Either they've been brokering some kind of truce," started Marcel.

"... or they've been working together the whole time," muttered Elijah.

"What do we do, then?" asked Maddy. "I spoke to Tristan, and I'm convinced he didn't know Aurora was here. He claims he wants to keep her from hurting me and Hope—"

"We cannot trust those words are the truth," said Elijah.

"I don't know," cut in Marcel. "He did publicly announce to The Strix that they're not to go near you ever. Strictly said they can't hurt you or your daughter in any way. He even went as far as to say your brothers aren't to be disturbed. I imagine he's aware that one of your brothers is dating a heretic and the last thing this guy wants is to get six furious heretics storming over here to defend you. He doesn't need to know that the only one you're close with is Valerie."

"Well," muttered Maddy, looking at Elena, "Valerie could easily get the others to help. They love fighting. They'd take any and every opportunity for a blood bath." She looked at Elijah. "What is it that you were going to tell Nik this morning?"

Elijah turned red, and didn't seem to want to admit it. Elena made a face at him. "Elijah, you might as well tell her. She'll find out anyway. Better she hears it from you than from Klaus, who will likely come home annoyed."

"You must understand," Elijah said in a strained voice, "I regret it very deeply. I never should have... I allowed my anger to overtake me and I did something horrendous."

"What is it, Elijah?"

"I compelled Aurora to break Niklaus's heart."

Elena let out a gasp. Marcel turned away, clearly shocked to hear this. Maddy just stared at him, her face falling.

Shit.

"So you're telling me," she whispered, "that the only other woman who came close to being the love of his life... his first love... didn't actually want to leave him? You're telling me she... she would have stuck by him if you hadn't... if..."

She didn't know how to feel. Surely Aurora and Klaus would still have broken up sooner or later, even if they hadn't parted ways so soon. But what if they hadn't? What if they'd truly been one another's epic love and they would have been together for centuries? Klaus never would have approached Maddy that day in the bar in 1920s Chicago. These past years of their love, of their experience with becoming parents, all of it would have been nonexistent. Hope wouldn't exist. Maddy might have been dating someone else. Someone who wouldn't have made her as happy. Or worse, she would have just been alone.

She thought more and more about everything that had happened since she met Klaus. She considered first the happiness she'd experienced in the twenties. Getting to learn about what passion could be like. That wouldn't have happened. She wouldn't have had the sexual awakening Klaus helped her experience.

He likely would have killed her back when he was trying to unlock his wolf side, because she wouldn't have meant a thing to him. And on the off-chance he didn't kill her, he would have made her life a living hell. Carol Lockwood would be dead. There would be hybrids all over the place. Meredith wouldn't have become a vampire, because Maddy might not have been angry enough to kill her. She might have only made her lose her medical license. She and Damon would have been trapped at Whitmore with no one there to rescue them. She wouldn't have become as close with Jo. In fact, Jo would have likely been dead because Maddy wouldn't have had what she needed to help Kai unlink her from the Gemini Coven. She wouldn't be in New Orleans at all. Perhaps she might have been closer with her mother because she wouldn't be so worried that Lily might hurt her daughter. The daughter she wouldn't have.

She didn't realize she'd teared up until Elena put her hand on her shoulder, making her flinch. She immediately moved back, shaking her head.

"Maddy," said Elena softly. "Hey... I'm sure she doesn't mean anything to him anymore."

Her voice cracked as she replied, "Even if she means nothing to him, he might still mean everything to her. Knowing that she still loved him... that she never meant to break things off... oh my god... she's gonna fucking kill me."

"No the hell she won't," said Marcel. "We're not letting some foxy little bitch come here and hurt you. She's gonna have to go through us. Even Jo and Vincent are willing to take back their magic in an emergency— I'm sure they'd do it in a heartbeat if Aurora came here trying to take your head off."

"I need to go," muttered Maddy. "I can't be here."

"You can't go out there!" said Elena when she started heading for the door. "Aurora could be anywhere!"

"I just—" Maddy put her hands in front of her mouth as if she was praying, silencing herself, "I just need to let my anger out so that I won't get this fucked up if she confronts me."

Marcel figured out where she needed to go. "Let's go, then. Just you and me."

Elena nodded when she realized what Maddy was planning. "Just be careful. Call us if anything."

Maddy didn't even look at Elijah as she walked past him.

Once they were in St. Anne's Church and had the fight gym to themselves, Maddy rounded on the nearest punching bag, trying her hardest to put a hole in it. Which she did fairly easily.

"How could Elijah just do something like that?" she spat as she pound her fists into the bag while Marcel held it so she wouldn't kick it across the room right away. "How could he take matters into his own hands? Forget for a second—" she huffed as she missed a punch and nearly hit Marcel in the face, "—that I'm with Klaus. Aurora dumping him changed the course of his life! It broke his heart! It's the reason he truly began to feel he wasn't worthy of being loved! After her, he just always assumed that the people who claimed to love him would eventually leave him. It's probably a contributing factor to why he used to dagger his siblings all the damn time—"

Marcel ducked as her fist burst through the other side of the punching back. Maddy moved onto the neck one. "And now," she said, starting to kick, "I have to worry about my husband's jealous ex coming back into town and likely having a lot of things she wants to say to me. I don't know what her mental health issues are and I don't want to be mean but what if it makes her more dangerous than the average ancient vampire?"

"I don't think it's being mean if you're cautious about how her thought process might differ from other people's," said Marcel. "She might be more impulsive. More angry. It's hard to tell especially not knowing what these mental issues are."

Maddy started to cry as she kicked the bag across the room. "She could do anything! She could hurt Elena, Bonnie, Jo, or Hayley— my closest friends here. She could go to Mystic Falls and hurt my brothers. She could go after my daughter!" She sank to the floor, covering her face. "Every time I think of all the ways someone might hurt Hope, it's like I can't breathe! Because I am so useless in a fight against ancient vampires! I can't do anything to protect her if Aurora finds the two of us alone in the street!"

"Don't say that," said Marcel, crouching down beside her. "Look at me, I beat a vampire who was a thousand years old just by being observant and getting a little clever. You're not that much younger than me. I think you have to have more faith in yourself. Nobody is letting anything happen to that little girl. Just like nobody is letting anything happen to you. You're not alone in this. We've all got your back." He sat down properly. "Come on. Say what's really on your mind."

She shook her head quickly and he added, "Come on, if you don't admit it, you're never gonna feel better. You said it yourself, you need to let that anger out so you can be level-headed in a crisis. Admit it, Maddy. Come on. I'm not gonna judge and I'm not gonna tell anybody."

Her mouth quivered and she squeezed her eyes shut tightly, speaking between sobs, "I don't want to have doubts about Klaus's loyalty, I really don't, but what if he leaves me for her? She was his first love. And he thought she didn't love him. It was likely tough for him to move on but he managed it, and by the time he met me, she was nothing to him. But now? Now that he'll know that they were never meant to be apart? I don't know much about their relationship but what if she was just... better than me? Surely she reminds him of better times, before he lost most of his humanity. What if he prefers her? What if we start having problems... what if he stops being satisfied by me... and what if one day he just hands me a paper and tells me to sign it so we can be legally divorced? What if this... this epic and true love I could have sworn we had turns into us sharing custody of Hope? Living apart? Hating each other? In a world where Aurora would be her stepmother? Where she'd be the other woman in his life? The one he prefers to me?"

Marcel remained quiet while she spoke, waiting until he was sure she was done to say, "Klaus is ruthless. A lot of times, he's unfeeling. Selfish. In the past he was a player, he slept with whoever he wanted. He wasn't really loyal to anyone aside from his family. But that's the thing... he's not like that anymore. He is really, really different from the man I knew two hundred years ago. You went from being a fling to his girlfriend to the mother of his child to his wife. You're his family. Not Aurora. I mean, how long were they together, a few months? Weeks, maybe? How could they have had anything in comparison to what you and him have now? Will some part of him have unresolved feelings for her? Maybe, I won't lie. But I know for a fact he's gonna choose you. Because I've never seen him look at anyone the way he looks at you. And some old girlfriend from a thousand years ago isn't gonna change that. She's never gonna give him all that you have. It's because of you that he has a better relationship with his siblings. He's seeing good in himself for the first time in a long time because you helped him see that there was some of it left in him, even when he thought there was nothing. Look at your little girl, huh?"

He brought out his phone, showing a picture he had of Hope from one day where Cami had been with her, and Hope had been wearing Cami's sunglasses. "You think she would be this happy with a dad like the one I had? The version of Klaus who raised me?"

Maddy shook her head, and Marcel nodded. "Exactly. The man who raised me had a lot of flaws. He wasn't the best. Sometimes he was even abrasive. But the man who is raising Hope is someone who I haven't seen in a long time. He likes this version of himself. And he'd be giving up this beautiful life with you and your daughter for what, some girl that never made him think of having a family? Some girl who never challenged his views about right and wrong? Some girl who is likely gonna be a very outwardly jealous and vindictive little bitch? He'd be an idiot to give you up for that. He'd never consider it. You're his everything, Maddy. You and Hope. You're all that matters to him."

When all the tears were gone, and she felt like a weight had been lifted off her chest, she pulled Marcel into a hug.