Moving back into the city that Frankie had fled from was surprisingly easy.

When she'd finally returned all the calls from her brother and explained what'd happened he was sad to know she was leaving though he pushed a happy facade forwards. Frankie was pleased Alaric understood because it helped settle a little of the guilt that she was leaving him. Instead of questioning her decision or suggesting she reconsider, Alaric had been good when he heard, grinning with delight to hear things had gone well with Elijah and eagerly offering to pack up and post her things for her.

Secretly she could feel her heart clench just a little that something would happen to him again but it was a fear that she was working to control and one that she wouldn't let control her anymore.

Things were good for her here, almost all of her work was online and so aside from a few awkward digital meetings it was easy enough for her to switch into an entirely new city. Her apartment had been in good nick too, she started actually paying rent again though it was weird talking to her landlord who presumed she'd never left. Cami and her were close and revelled in the fact that they needn't stay up till three am talking anymore over FaceTime and could now fill their lives with coffee and dinner dates together.

Then there was Elijah.

Elijah was great. Elijah was more than just great, he made her heart pound in her chest and filled her with happiness. Everything about Elijah delighted her and everything about being with him brought her peace. They were a pair that just clicked and everything from their talks to their dinners to the nights they stayed together were easy and fun. Nothing made her feel more at ease than when she was with him, she felt most herself when he was there, the same her only less anxious and more together.

Their nights together were something that were far from an anomaly. They took turns staying with one another though they seemed to spend more time at the compound, his enormous bed and room winning though Frankie was partial to the fact that at her place they had an entire apartment to themselves and no one potentially hearing them.

They spent the night before at Elijah's. Accompanied by her laptop, Frankie intended on taking advantage of the space to work so when she took breaks they could hang out. It was a good plan and one that Elijah wholeheartedly supported but before she began she needed a coffee.

After mumbling her intentions to Elijah she slid from the bed, tugging his shirt over her jeans and sliding her sneakers on. They'd both had a late night and for once he was sleeping in while she woke and she intended on leaving him be.

The cafe that Frankie liked wasn't far from the compound and with her board at her apartment she instead went on foot, texting Elijah to let her know if he woke up and wanted a coffee too.

She was halfway down the street when she noticed someone tailing her. The street was somewhat busy, enough that she didn't think she'd be taken but she still had a pitiful track record for kidnappings and it made her nervous nonetheless.

Every time she stopped, they did too, each wrong turn she took they seemed to follow and it wasn't long before her suspicions turned to certainty that they were following after her. It took her a moment to realise too where she recognised the pair from, finally placing together two of the men in attendance at the Strix party, two who'd been close by Tristan and Aya for much of Marcel's fight. Frankie frowned in annoyance, eventually spinning on her feet to storm over and ask what their problem was but the moment she got within a few feet from them they disappeared.

Frustration bubbled over but with the pair gone she reluctantly continued to the coffee shop. As she waited in line she saw a text from Elijah, recently risen and confirming he didn't want a drink. Frankie had half typed out a reply before she looked to the window, noticing her tails leaning against the building opposite watching her.

"'Lijah," Frankie grumbled in annoyance as she stormed from the coffee shop with her coffee in hand and her phone to her ear, "They're following me. Tristans freaky fucking followers are following me. I caught the same two waiting for me like four times this morning and now they're watching me drink my fucking coffee."

As she spoke she watched them, noting how they'd both pretended to suddenly be busy though not enough to miss the finger she was flipping at them.

"Are you alright?" he asked sharply.

"I'm fine just fucking pissed," she sighed, "Can you tell Tristan to make them leave? I've tried to tell them myself but whenever I go over to them they just speed off like fucking cowards."

Frankie said the end of her sentence louder having no doubt that the two men surreptitiously leaning against the building across the street were listening.

She was pissed off being tailed and especially knowing it was being done with the intention of her knowing about it. Frankie had gathered enough to know that the Strix and all of its members were the best meaning if someone like her could spot a tail so easily they were following her poorly on purpose.

Whether this was some attempt to intimidate her or as a misguided favour to protect her for Elijah she didn't know. She'd learned more about Tristan from Elijah since she'd been back and nothing he'd told her had garnered much sympathy nor trust. The dislike she'd had for him at the gala had only intensified and she had no doubt he'd given the directive for this tail.

"Do you want me to pick you up?"

"No," she said honestly, turning back to the compound, "I'm coming back now anyway. If I'm not there in like ten then there's probably a problem but I'm sure they're Strix."

On the other end of the line Elijah's lips pursed into a frown.

He agreed with her implication that Tristan would've needed to be practically suicidal to do anything more than intimidate Frankie but rage enveloped him at the audacity of him doing even that. Whether Tristans intentions were pure or not, he didn't like that he'd taken measures to follow her and he certainly didn't like that it had been done without his explicit permission.

"If anything happens-"

"I'll see you soon," she promised.

Fortunately from there things were fine. She didn't have any problems with her tails in fact they were less obvious once her call with Elijah happened. No doubt their instructions had included a what to do when you get caught because both of them seemed to back off a little after that.

Sipping her coffee with her phone in hand, Frankie stopped in her place as she crossed over the threshold of the compound, a sight she'd hadn't seen in more than a year in front of her freezing her still.

"Klaus," Frankie called, first anxiously and then annoyed, "Klaus get your ass down here."

It was clear that Klaus and Elijah had been talking in the study because while Klaus strode to the balustrade irritatingly slow, Elijah came too, more urgency in his step noting the tone in her voice. His eyes landed on her nervously thinking of their recent call though they slipped to the sight beside her quickly.

"Do you hear something brother?" Klaus asked, leaning against the balustrade and looking up and deliberately away from Frankie, "Where we used to have peace there now seems to be some incessant buzzing, some shrill sound."

"Brother," Elijah said sharply, looking down at Frankie and the corpse in concern, "Might I suggest l-"

"Klaus get your ass down here and deal with this fucking dead girl. Why the fuck is she here?"

The girl in question was what had horrified her, clearly slaughtered as some misguided gift for the Mikaelson's, laying on a bed of lavender. She was dressed in a blue dress with her hair intricately braided and her wrists slit gruesomely. The blood congealed where it had pooled away and a letter was clutched tightly in her hand though by how pristine it seemed it had obviously been placed after she died.

Klaus looked down at that point, the amusement dissipating from his face and a moment later he'd sped down the stairs and begun leaning over the corpse . Elijah followed suit though he came to her side, deliberately turning her to face him away from the body.

"Are you alright?" he asked Frankie softly, taking the coffee in her hand and placing it on the table nearby so he could pull her into a hug.

"Yeah," she sighed with her eyes shut and her head buried against him, "Hadn't seen a dead body in like eighteen months though so that's a shitty streak to break."

Elijah sighed understandingly and pressed a kiss to her temple as they pulled apart. He understood that she was fine, in their world a corpse wasn't an anomaly, but also he knew that she wasn't happy about it and that tonight she'd likely have dreams about the girl laying here.

It was something he'd figured out a long time ago and though she didn't talk about it he always worried about her the nights after seeing something so unpleasant. Though death and injury were commonplace for him, they weren't for her and she didn't want them to be. Elijah respected that, he wanted to do what he could to keep her from the misery in his life and he wanted to keep it from encompassing her too strongly.

"I'll stay at yours tonight," he said softly.

Frankie nodded. She knew she'd be fine she just wished she didn't have to live in this world where she saw a girl murdered at ten in the morning. Klaus passed the letter that had been left with the girl and Frankie peeked around Elijah to read it too too.

"Roses are red, lavender is blue. Come find me before I find you," Elijah murmured.

"Shit poem," Frankie snorted, doing what she could to distract herself from the sight she kept involuntarily looking to, "Do you know who wrote it?"

"I seem to remember her being a better poet," said Klaus.

Frankie looked between him and Elijah realising at once that not only did both Elijah and Klaus know who the perpetrator was, but that she was someone they clearly knew intimately. Elijah caught her eye nodding in a manner that she knew meant he'd explain later when they were alone who had left the letter and why Klaus seemed so tense.

"Oh," Elijah mused, "I wouldn't say this is lacking in poetry."

Sighing Frankie passed the letter she'd been examining back to Klaus, "She seems to want you to find her."

"So we will," Klaus declared.

Klaus clasped Elijah on the shoulder as he spoke, tossing the letter on the corpse before turning to leave the compound. It was clear to her that whoever had left the letter was someone that was affecting Klaus more than he was willing to let on. There were few people who Frankie had ever seen shake Klaus and so this wavering anger made her worry for him.

"Are you so eager, Niklaus?" Elijah pressed, squeezing Frankie's hand that she'd wrapped around his, "Last time you even said her name was a thousand years ago, when you told me never to speak it again in your presence."

Frankie wasn't sure what she'd expected in discovering more about whoever left the body for them and while a thousand year old likely ex-lover was far from it, it made sense too. Only someone you'd opened your heart to could cause the pain that crossed his face even despite the time that had passed.

She wondered briefly whether this girl was someone who knew Tristan and Lucien, finding it an unusual coincidence that they too knew the Mikaelsons a thousand years ago and that they too had mysteriously appeared in town at the same time.

Klaus was tense, he had his shoulders rolled back and he looked only a little more than bothered but Frankie knew that underneath the facade his heart was pounding and that his desire to see whoever it was was barely there. It was clear that despite his need to storm off and find her that he was only doing it so he could lay her to rest rather than because he was eager.

"So, am I to wait as she leaves her little calling cards all over my home?" Klaus snapped back.

Elijah looked uncomfortable, his eyes shifted to Frankie with a nervousness that was unfamiliar to her. There was evidently more that Elijah knew that Klaus didn't and she wondered what Elijah might know that was causing his step to falter and his gaze to avert.

"There's something you should know," he confessed, "When mother seized control of my mind, unleashing those monstrosities that lurk behind the red door."

Elijah paused here, he rarely looked frightened and so Frankie's hand pulled itself from his grip and fell to his back out of sight, tracing soft circles as he continued. She knew a little about the red door but it was only that which Klaus had told her whilst she was away. It was something which she'd mentioned with Elijah once but the discomfort on his face and the guilt that flooded his eyes caused her to change the subject and let it slide rather than pushing farther.

"I saw something," he continued, "Aurora was there."

Aurora, that was her name.

The woman who'd apparently scarred Klaus so terribly that he'd refused to even hear her name for more than a millennium and the one who now filled him with rage. Even when Elijah had said it Klaus had practically flinched away. She wasn't used to him so easily wounded and she worried about how he would react when he actually saw her.

"If you mean to confess a thousand year old secret that will divide us after our hard won reconciliation, then te absolvo, brother," Klaus shrugged, rolling his eyes in annoyance at Elijah's protestation, "there is nothing you could've done involving her that could be worse than what she did to me."

"Klaus maybe-" Frankie tried to cut in, breaking off a moment later when she caught his eyes which seemed almost worried about what Elijah would want to tell him.

"Please, do not dismiss this, Niklaus-"

"Whatever it is, it can wait," Klaus snapped, annoyance pushed beneath as he pressed faux delight forwards, "We have a plate of here and now problems, and I mean to clear it. If it makes you feel any better, we can kill Aurora together! Then neither of us need play her little mind games ever again, hmm?"

"Hey," Frankie snapped when Klaus turned dramatically to leave the compound, throwing an expectant look at Elijah for him to follow, "Who's cleaning up this body and telling the girls family? I'm sure as shit not touching her and you can't just leave her here while you go on your little murder mission."

Elijah paused in concern, "Do you want me to drop you home? I'll send someone for the body but it likely mightn't be quick and if you'd rather-"

Klaus seemed to twitch with his impatience and Frankie sighed, "No, I'll be fine. Just send someone please, I'm just gonna work in your room."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah," she nodded, flicking her head towards Klaus who was impatiently tapping his foot now, "Just look after him, I'll stay till you get back if you want to- if you want to talk about anything."

Elijah nodded, pressing a kiss to her lips before returning to Klaus, the pair speeding off without another word.

Frankie left too after that, she had no desire to stay with a corpse and really she only intended on staying at the compound to be there for Klaus and Elijah when they returned home. Guilt niggled at her as she picked up her coffee, a final glance over her shoulder before she headed upstairs to work.