"Hello?"

The sweet voice was the first thing Elijah sensed when he came to. His eyes were still glued shut, it was like someone had hung a hundred pounds of weights from his eyelids. But he could still hear the harmonic voice.

"Lord Mikaelson" she said his name to help bring him back.

Elijah's hands clutched the ground, feeling for his surroundings, trying to guess where he was. The floor was damp and he had felt what seemed like leaves and twigs. He was on the bayou floor.

Finally, he managed to flicker his eyes open to see nothing but the bright sun burst into his pupils, leaving only a silhouette of his rescuer. So he shut his eyes again and hoped for the sun to disappear.

And again, he slowly opened his eyes, slowly but surely adjusting to the light outside, now finally focussing in on the face of the girl who stood over him.

"When I said I wanted to meet you at noon, I meant I wanted you conscious" Cassandra said seriously "and not in the middle of the woods"

Elijah shot up, forcing Clarissa to move out of the way. He looked down to see that she was knelt on the floor beside him, her hands were pressed either side of his body whilst he was lying down, he could see the dirt on her hands.

"What happened?" He asked before he could even recall the past events of the night.

"I'll tell you what happened, you were stupid enough to be in the depth of the bayou after midnight, you were plainly asking to be killed" Cassandra scolded him, he could see the anger in her eyes as she pulled him onto his feet. Elijah looked towards the skirt of her dress where it was covered with dirt, and a hint of red blood.

"You're bleeding?" Elijah asked before he wondered why she was in these parts of the bayou.

"I fell" she let go of his hand and looked down towards her dress where she attempted to brush the muck off with her own hands, but it didn't work.

"What are you even doing down here anyway?" He asked

"Well, when you didn't show up, I kind of already knew what you would have been doing. I usually find my plants around these parts, they're usually baron and untouched places" she explained "and just a coincidence that I stumbled upon you, but you're lucky, you weren't even bitten"

"I think he knows what's good for him then" Elijah chuckled "if he would have made contact through a bite I surely would have been able to recognise him or her"

"Well it's unfortunate for us then" Cassandra sighed "I've heard news from the coven that Dianne had been found dead; hung from the clock tower in the town square. I am not a huge fan of the New Orleans witches, but they are of my blood, if someone hurts them, they hurt me"

"I feel exactly the same towards my vampires" Elijah agreed, reliving the past night where he saw Dianne's body. They must have moved her after they had knocked Elijah unconscious.

Cassandra looked towards the ground and flickered her eyes back up to him, she saw how worried he looked. "Then we have a deal" she uttered.

Elijah didn't see it coming, not at this point. Did it take him almost getting slaughtered to actually make her feel so bad that she would actually strike a deal with him? "Perfect"

"If" she urged "you can abide by some rules of mine"

Elijah nodded his head slowly, what are her rules? Would they be a huge deal breaker? "Should we discuss this at yours?" He asked, thinking that the closest place would be more convenient.

"Number one, my home is my home, nobody under any circumstances is to enter, that means none of your kind are invited in" Cassandra demanded, it was only a small rule

But it seemed to mean a lot to her "number two, I prefer my privacy and my safety, so I'd prefer to be alone from sunset to sunrise, and preferably until midday, unless it's an emergency"

She carried on listing these very specific set of rules without warning, leaving Elijah to scramble his mind together and attempt to remember them. She didn't stutter, she didn't slow, she confidently carried on.

"Three, I don't want any other vampires other than your family around my area and four; I don't want to deal with the witches, unless I say so"

Okay, so nobody enters her house, there is a specific time zone where she will take visitors, no visitors at night under any circumstances, no vampires and no witches. Elijah managed to catch all of the rules and remember key words where he could piece everything together in his mind.

But there weren't any deal breakers. No 'you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours' and no 'I'll do this for you, but in return you have to...' It was just a set of understandable rules that he would definitely be able to follow. It gives her some control, maybe that's why she set them out.

"Anything else?" Elijah asked, hoping it had come to an end so he could carry on and get back to his siblings.

"I'll let you know if I think of anything else" she smirked "so, are you still interested?"

"I'll draw up a contract for us all to sign, your rules will be adhered and our terms would be met" Elijah nodded "speaking of meeting, maybe you should meet my siblings before anything goes further"

"I'm sure they trust your judgement" Cassandra tried to refuse, but it was going to happen anyway, especially when she was helping the family. "I'm not allowed out of the bayou unless it is my designated hours and days, which it isn't"

"I'm sure they'd make an exception" Elijah spoke "what they don't know won't hurt them"

"Lord Mikaelson are you suggesting bending the rules?" She asked, finally showing some sort of personality on her face, her eyebrow raised and a smile tugged on her lips.

"Maybe" Elijah mirrored her expression

"We have been allies for less than a minute and you are already a bad influence on me" Cassandra carried on "maybe, just this once, I am a stickler for the rules.