Family Above All

74. The French Port of New Orleans

No pairing

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Salvatore Boarding House

"Are you okay?" Vicki asked, pulling Annabelle down the long hallway of the boarding house with her.

"No, my butt is on fire and Jeremy is missing or something. He promised he would take my calls. I called the house and no one is picking up," Annabelle explained. Her long black hair was matted around her face, but her eyes were troubled. Vicki had never seen her this worried.

"Yeah, I was worried about Matty, too," Vicki added hastily, hating to add to Annabelle's troubles. But there was no choice. Matt could be in trouble, too. "And then, I noticed this... and now I'm really freaked!"

Vicki pushed Annabelle into Katherine's room. It was a disaster of clothes thrown everywhere with make up and jewelry on all surfaces.

"What? It's always a mess," Annabelle noted.

"Check out the closet," Vicki said in a hush. "Her suitcase is gone and all of her good jewelry."
"Jeez...," Annabelle said, almost stumbling over a discarded hand bag, on her way to the closet. She opened it and it looked like there had been a robbery. Katherine's fine designer luggage was missing.

"She must have been in a hurry. I didn't even know she came back today," Vicki said. Katherine was often in and out of the mansion quietly unless she needed something. Then, that was everyone else's problem.

"She does that. Maybe she took stuff to Mason's place?" Annabelle reasoned.

"Maybe, but I already called Nadia. She was out getting supplies. She said she would pick me up to go look for Matty," Vicki said. "You might as well come..."
"But M-Mother!" Annabelle gasped. "I just got it for..."

"Look, if it's nothing, we can be back before she knows we're gone. If something is wrong, who cares?" Vicki expounded.

"You're right," Annabelle said. "We should go out your window. She can't see that from the greenhouse."
"Good thinking. You know, jumping out of windows is much easier when you're a vampire," Vicki quipped. "But we should hurry."

"Yeah, let me grab my bag and make it look like I'm pouting under the covers. That might buy us some time," Annabelle said. "Just in case."

Mikaelson Mansion

"Bonnie should have been here by now," Lucy fretted.

"We'll call from the road. We need to leave," Kol said, checking his watch. The sooner they left, the sooner they could get his siblings back and kill Tristan. That would be the icing on the cake.

"I'm tired," Julian complained, yawning on the couch.

Kol whispered, "You know, we could probably overpower them at this point."
Lucy nodded and answered quietly, "Ava is still wide awake, though. My gut is telling me that we need her, Kol. I'm sorry, but that is the truth."

"I know," Kol mumbled. "But I'm gonna catch such a thrashing for this. Worse than the time I...Oh, we don't have time for this."

Lucy chuckled.

"What?" Kol demanded.

"Nothing. It's just funny that you are more afraid of your brothers than the Strix," Lucy admitted.

"The Strix never caught me in a bawdy house with me drawers down," Kol recalled.

"What's a b-bawdy house?" Ava piped up.

Lucy almost laughed again to see Kol's face turn red.

"Never you mind. Let's get Damon and go," Lucy deflected. "I think the SUV is packed. I just wanted to wait for Bonnie to get here..."