"Frankie," Elijah murmured softly, his hand gently shaking her shoulder, "Wake up."

"What is it?" she groaned, peeking her eyes open to check the time before rolling over and pressing her head against his chest, "It's too early. Why are you waking me up, let's just go back to sleep."

"Your phone," he pulled it towards them off the side table and she recognised the sound that in her dream had been a fly that seemed intent on following her was actually her phone vibrating beside them, "It's ringing."

Frankie pressed a kiss to his jawline with her eyes still tightly closed before yawning and pressing her head into the crook of his neck, "Send it to voicemail, they can call in business hours."

"It's Joshua," he explained when the buzzing stopped and started again, "it's the third time it's rung."

Frankie groaned as she pulled the phone from his hand and to her ear, "Josh," she mumbled, "While I too am delighted that you've got a daylight ring you needn't rise at the ass crack of dawn and call me to tell me."

"It's Cami," he said quietly, "I think you should get to the attic."

"Is she alright?" Frankie snapped, sitting up, suddenly wide awake. Josh didn't reply for a moment and she snapped again, hardly noticing Elijah who'd risen too and was rubbing his hand comfortingly across her shoulders, "Josh, is she okay? Did someone hurt her? Did Kieran hurt her? Himself?"

"She's alright," he replied, apologetic at his delayed response as he realised how terrified she was, "Kierans okay too but he's not really. . . good. Cami's not taking it so well."

"I'll be there as soon as I can."

Frankie didn't even wait for a response as she hung up, tugging herself from the bed and pulling a pair of trousers she'd left a week ago on over Elijahs underwear before stealing a shirt too that she tucked into her trousers.

"I'll take you," Elijah offered, already dressed and handing her the shoes that she still had to search for each morning, "Is there anything else I can do?"

"No," she frowned, "Did Josh make any more sense to you? I don't really know what's going on. Cami was supposed to talk to Genevive at the party the last night but I haven't asked her how it went I only checked she made it out before everything happened."

"I'm sure she's alright," he said as he wrapped an arm to pull her into a kiss before they left, "Whatever it is we'll figure out what to do."

Frankie doubted very much that was true in knowing that Klaus likely would've gloated if he'd had a way to fix it all but she didn't let him know that, instead she sunk into the kiss and then a moment later pulled him back towards her in a hug.

Elijah wished in that moment, just for that moment at least, that he could pull her away from New Orleans and all that happened here. He wished he could keep her from this world which seemed so intent on causing her pain and hurt and help her hide away some place that he could keep her from worrying about anything ever again.

Instead, a moment later he pulled back, pressing a chaste kiss on her temple, "Come, the sooner we know what's going on the sooner we can help."

It felt like a half a moment later that they'd arrived at the attic but when Elijah turned to follow her she pressed a hand against his chest, "Thanks, but I've got this. I'll call if I need you."

Frankie could hear a conversation between Cami and Josh and another voice she couldn't recognise and it was only when she grew closer that she even made out what they were saying. Josh's voice was the one that seemed to be speaking now and it was clear to Frankie that he was compelling someone, "A priest hexed by a witch because of some vampires. Accept that these things are real, then forget them. I mean later. You forget them later. Crap. Ah! Okay. Let me start over."

"Dr Sheski," Cami's voice cut Josh off, "my uncle needs to be sedated. Something strong."

Frankie entered the room at that point but while Josh's eyes flicked to her with a grateful smile at her presence, no one else noticed her. Not Cami's uncle who was chained up by the window, his hands twitching frantically while his eyes were widened in terror. Not the stranger who was evidently a doctor, Dr Sheski she presumed, dressed in scrubs who seemed terrified of them all despite Josh's compulsion. Certainly not Cami, despite her being well within her view Cami couldn't take her eyes off the doctor.

"Sedation?" Dr Sheski said with horror, "He looks like he should be in an ICU."

"Ahh," Frankie joined in cooly, noting all heads snapped towards her with both Josh and Cami looking particularly relieved by her presence, "The ICU might be a bit of a tricky one, this other witch put some boundary spell on him, so he's pretty much stuck here."

"This man is malnourished," the doctor shot back, "severely dehydrated-"

"Which is why you're here I presume," Frankie cut him off with much more cruelty than she'd intended.

"Doctor," Cami said with a surprising amount of steadiness considering her uncle looking as deranged as he did beside them, "what do you know about shock therapy?"

"ECT?" he replied, he seemed half torn between incredulous and terrified by the question, "First, it's incredibly dangerous."

"But, it has been known to help treat cases of extreme psychosis."

"Cam," Frankie said, suddenly weary at the lengths Cami might go to in an attempt to prevent the inevitable, "I don't think-"

"It has, hasn't it," she pushed again, knocking Josh on the chest and nodding towards the doctor pointedly.

"Answer the nice lady," Josh compelled, shooting an apologetic look to Frankie's glare. It was clear he was just as reluctant to continue this mode of questioning as Frankie, knowing equally well how poorly it would likely end for both Cami and her uncle.

"We don't fully understand it yet," the doctor replied tentatively, "but, yes, in some patients, using electrical current to induce seizures can subvert a psychotic episode- in effect, rebooting the brain. But, only in the most extreme cases, do we even consider. . . "

"Like my friend said," Cami replied confidently, "we're talking about a priest hexed by a witch. I don't think it gets any more extreme than that."

"Cam," Frankie called again, "Do you want to come get some air or something? I know this is all a lot but I think maybe-"

"I love you but you don't get it," Cami snapped, "When I lost Sean I didn't know about any of this so I couldn't stop it. I know you couldn't save your brother but I'm not letting my uncle go without a fight. If you're not going to help me you can leave, I'll see you at work."

"Woah," Josh laughed awkwardly, stepping forwards to deflect from the argument, "We're all friends here, I think she just wants to-"

"It's cool," Frankie waved her hand at him, "I'm just gonna get us all some coffees and then I'll be back. I'm here for you Cami and I'm on your team, just - just don't start anything until I get back, okay?"

Cami didn't reply but Josh's nod told her he'd do what he could to help hold her off from hurting her uncle in her desperation. Frankie did get them all coffees but that wasn't the reason for her departure, instead the moment she reached the stairs she was tugging her phone from her pocket and dialling anxiously.

"Hey," she said softly, "Where are you? I need your help, well, Cami does. It's her uncle, she's- she's about to do something that's going to break her."

"Are you with Kieran?" Klaus said quickly, "What's going on?"

"Yeah," Frankie was relieved he was so readily on board, "Yeah, I'm just outside the attic but Josh and Cami are inside with him. Her uncle's really bad Klaus and she's not thinking straight. I tried to talk to her, but I don't know what to do."

"I'm on my way," he said, "Don't let her do anything before I get there."

"Thank you."

"Always," he replied before the line went dead.

The coffees, while a functional excuse, were all entirely wasted because not one of them could stomach the thought of the drink when she returned and joined in on watching the doctor more than reluctantly prepare Uncle Kieran for the shock therapy Cami was set on. Frankie was almost beginning to get so worried that Klaus wasn't going to show up before things began when he finally made his appearance.

"Well," Klaus called cooly, his ever-present cockiness disguising the shock he felt, "isn't this a gruesome little scene?"

"Klaus," Cami said, spinning in surprise to face him, "What're you doing here?"

"I received an urgent call on your behalf," he replied. Klaus was about to reveal the perpetrator of his presence when he caught Frankie's frantically shaking head behind Cami and he switched tracks, "It seems I've been tasked with doing what your coward of a boyfriend could not. Which, by the looks of things, is dissuading you from whatever madness it is you're about to attempt."

Cami gave him a look that told him in no uncertain terms that she didn't believe him and that too she wasn't going to listen to him.

"Are you ready?" she snapped, spinning away with a roll of her eyes as she faced the doctor, her back to Klaus pretending that he wasn't there.

"Please," the doctor replied, it was clear he was terrified by the way his hands were shaking and his face was screwed up in pain, even as he worked it was clear he was disgusted in himself, "please, I'm begging you, don't force me to do this."

"Cam," Frankie said cooly, approaching her slowly to put her hand on her arm, "I'm not trying to tell you what you can and can't do-"

"Good."

"But you've gotta know we shouldn't do this," she continued, "Don't force this man to hurt your uncle. I know you need him but you've gotta know this is torture."

"Fine," Cami snapped, jerking her arm from Frankie's grip and snatching the tools from the doctor, "I'll do it myself."

"Camille," Klaus cut in, stepping forwards now Frankie had stepped back with the doctor and Josh in reluctant concession, "your uncle is a good man. He shouldn't suffer."

"He's been suffering for weeks." Cami replied shakily, Frankie watched as she tightened her grip on the handles while her hands balled into fists, "He's dying, Klaus. This might be the only chance he's got."

Though Frankie was sure Klaus disapproved of this as much as she did he reluctantly stepped back, standing beside her when Cami's grip retightened on the ECT handles. Frankie wished she wasn't there, wasn't watching her friend about to torture one of the people she loved most, wasn't about to listen to the screams of someone she knew they all respected, wished her friend wasn't dealing with unimaginable pain.

The first screams of pain came the moment Cami pressed the electricity against her uncles temples. Frankie's fists were squeezed so tightly she knew she'd drawn blood because she caught the way Josh's head flicked to her, panic in his eyes that made her shove her hands in her pocket. Cami's face, though determined, was secretly filled with abject terror and Frankie knew that despite the regret she was feeling, this was something that no one could stop her doing.

It was a painful process and the room seemed to gasp in unanimous relief when Cami pulled away, Kierans body now unconscious. When he woke though, things only further seemed to plummet because for a moment, just a short moment, a flicker of her real uncle was there.

Cami took his moment of lucidity as hope though Frankie felt less sure, however grateful she was that Kieran had returned for just a moment, she didn't want her friend to have to continue to cause him so much pain to make it reoccur.

Eventually Klaus pulled Cami from the room leaving her and Josh with the doctor and her uncle. While Frankie stood to the side, her phone out as she checked in on Elijah, her attention was pulled away when Kieran began to scream. Josh tugged him back from where he was struggling in an attempt to attack the doctor a moment later Klaus was there, following as he pulled him to the bed.

That was the beginning of the very end, Frankie knew. The doctor told them with no uncertainty that Kieran wasn't going to live through another round and looking to Klaus she was hopeful this would be the moment he put his foot down to end this madness. The doctor had tugged out a vial of anaesthesia and with Klaus and Josh holding him as tightly as they could against the bed, Cami holding the syringe to render her uncle unconscious.

"I got it, Cam," Frankie said softly when it was clear that the way she was eying up the placement wasn't just for accuracies sake but because of how overwhelmed she was feeling, "I'll do it."

Cami allowed Frankie to tug the needle from her hand easily, looking to Klaus who'd just pulled his phone to his ear. She was doing what she could to handle it, that's what she'd been doing all day, even as she shocked her uncle and felt the guilt gnaw away at her, even as she listened to him scream and beg and plead, she was just doing whatever she could.

Klaus had been kind when he pulled her away, his words gentler than he often allowed himself to be. He'd been trying to prepare her for what obviously to him and to everyone else in the attic, was an inevitable end and she hated that she was even considering he could be right.

"What?" Klaus said down the line with exasperation and just a hint of worry, his phone had rung just moments ago and even as he held the priest steady it was against his ear listening, "Where are you?"

Frankie could tell Cami wasn't thinking straight, that was why none of them had truly gone against her in her terror for her uncle. It was wrong what she was doing, that much was clear, but she was doing it because she loved her uncle so badly that she couldn't even consider allowing him to die and how could she be blamed for that.

Klaus was still on the phone, watching Frankie inject the anaesthesia into Kieran which seemed to finally cause him to register the situation. When she pulled back, dropping the needle against the side table he realised it was time for her to go, for all of them to leave because it was clear that this were about to be Kierans final moments and no one but Cami needed to witness them.

"Would you get him out of here now, please?" Klaus snapped at Josh, still listening to whoever on the phone though he pulled the base away from his mouth, pointing at the doctor and then a few moments later nodding his head to Frankie, "Make sure he remembers nothing. Her too, take her home."

"I'm fine Klaus," Frankie frowned, "I can handle this."

Klaus tugged the phone back from his ear and his face softened, "I know you are, but I'll take care of it. Go to the compound, I'll call you if anything happens."

"Come on," Josh said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders while his free hand pushed the doctor gently to the door, "We can get a drink after we drop Dr McDreamy off."

"Klaus-"

"Frankie, trust me. I have this."

Frankie was more than reluctant as she left but she did trust Klaus, trusted that he cared enough about Cami he'd do whatever he could and trusted that he'd tell her what happened. After Josh compelled the doctor to forget the afternoon, the supernatural, and all of their faces, they did indeed visit a bar.

It took half a dozen drinks before Josh called it a night, Frankie wasn't drunk, not like she secretly wished she was in order to burn the sound of Kierans screams from her ears.

She went to the compound like Klaus directed, she wanted to know the moment he was home and she wasn't against seeing Elijah either. Elijah didn't seem surprised by her presence when she appeared in the doorway and he simply shifted the cushions off the couch so she could sit beside him. It was obvious Elijah's day had been just as exhausting as hers and so when he placed the bookmark in his book she asked him about it.

"Are you okay?" she said, her fingers fiddling with the buttons on his sleeve as she straightened them, "Hayley called Klaus."

"There was a bomb at the bayou," he explained, catching her hand and flipping it to kiss her palm. His eyes furrowed into a frown when he caught sight of the little half moons scarring her palm and his thumb gently grazed against it, "Mostly the pack was unharmed although there were a few casualties. Eve, the woman who helped us that time, she's quite ill."

"You can't heal her?" she asked, unsure if this was a technicality due to her being a werewolf or if it was something more personal.

"No," he shook his head, "They were sure she'd never consent, I didn't want to do something that she wouldn't agree to, even knowing what may come from it."

"I'm so sorry," she murmured, "That would've been awful."

Elijah nodded. He'd been though worse, he'd seen greater pain and death and fear but it didn't make it anymore pleasant to watch today. Frankie's phone rang and she tugged her hand away from him to pull it out and to her ear.

The conversation wasn't long, and when a few moments later she hung up the phone he gave her knee a gentle squeeze checking in on her, "Are you alright?"

It had been Klaus calling, a surprisingly tactful Klaus who'd told her Cami's uncle had passed away. As she'd listened to him talk, she felt her heart fall to her stomach while her fingers had curled more and more tightly around Elijah's shirt sleeve. She knew even with the phone pressed to her ear Elijah could hear each word and she was grateful she didn't need to explain to him what'd happened.

Klaus assured her that Cami was alright, or as much as one could be, and was surprisingly with Marcel. Now it was a waiting game, waiting for Cami to reply, waiting for Klaus to take a second wave of revenge, waiting for the other shoe on their supernatural trauma to drop knowing that bad things came in sets of threes.

Frankie didn't know what to say, she was alright really, she'd hardly known Kieran, she'd talked with him three, maybe four times. That was the problem, how much Kierans death was rocking her and not only because he was concerned for her friend, but with what his death brought up for her too.

Wasn't that selfish, that her friend losing one of her closest relatives hurt her as well with what it made her remember. When she finally spoke to Cami she wouldn't bring it up, of course, but thinking of the grief she knew her friend felt only brought her back to the grief she'd felt when her brother died in Mystic Falls.

There were clearly few people left without wounds in the supernatural world but it made her remember something Elijah said on the day that Davina died. She didn't reply to Elijahs question, she didn't want to lie to him but she didn't want to talk about it either, she wanted a different kind of peace.

"Will you read to me?" she asked gently, "I can make us dinner, but will you read. Like that day, to distract me."