New Orleans, the next day

"What? I am I not telling the truth? You're got got the hots for this guy and you're a tad bit jealous of Camille and the way he was all sweet with her" Enzo said.

"Will you shut up! Can we concentrate on what is more important right now - the case and not my love life." Caroline narrowed her eyes at her partner.

"Yes, Ma'am!" Enzo made a cute smirk.

"Anyway, I saw you all clumsy and red when Bonnie Bennett served you the coffee this morning." Caroline remarked.

"Clumsy, how? What are you talking about?"

"You over- pouring the sugar while your goggly eyes were in a daydream while she was taking Camille's order is just a figment of my imagination?"

"Do you know that you are talking like me" Enzo pointed out.

"Yeah - I spend too much time with you." Caroline stated.

"Ok - you guys - Finn is not the one who killed Aiden Woodell." Camille said as she came up to her fellow Agents.

"So, it's official?" Enzo said.

"Yep. Which now puts us again - nowhere." Camille said.

"Do we have any lead on the artefacts from Mexico?" Caroline asked.

"Elijah is staying a few more days in Mexico City to see if he can get more on the artefacts." Camille replied. "Stefan Salvatore - his alibi checks out, too?"

"Yep." Caroline replied.

"A name keeps coming up, linked to a secret organization - Aya Al-Rashid." Caroline saw a message she had received from the researcher.

"Let's follow up on it." Enzo stood up.

"All rogue witches should be questioned." Caroline said standing up as well.

Camille opposed the idea. She knew that eventually it would come to that. She thought of Vincent, who was helping her with the investigation. "They will keep stum. I don't think it will bring us anywhere."

"She is right." Enzo agreed.

"Right." Caroline muttered, and as her phone rang, she took the call.

"We'll go to Bayou and see if we can get more from Aiden's boyfriend." Enzo said to Camille.

"Ok. I will see you later." Camille said, and got her phone out to call Elijah.

*
Days went by in a flash. And so a month passed. Elijah was not near solving the case, and neither were Caroline, Enzo nor Camille.

They had though established a link between Aiden's murder and the murder of John, Hayley and Damon.

In the De Martel House, Aurora discussed Lucien's disappearance.

"He is lying low. Which is best for now. I told him not to rush things with the Gilbert doppelganger. But you know Lucien, he's never been subtle." Tristan said.

"You are right there, dear brother. The dust needs to settle, if we are to be victorious in the end." Aurora said flicking a fashion magazine over.

"Have you gone through the plans for this year's Masquerade Ball with the party planner?"

"Yes. It's all done. Invitations are being printed and sent." Aurora replied.

"Let's make it a charity thing. Let's show that we care more than usual. Everyone loves a distraction, especially if it is for a good cause. The hospital will benefit from a new wing. We can dedicate it to John Gilbert." Tristan said.

"Why didn't you say this before? I have to change the invitations now." Aurora was not pleased.

"Do it. Extend the invitations to the Mikaelsons, too."

Aurora looked at her brother wide-eyed."But you hate them."

"Profoundly. Still - I want to show them good faith. Also, I need my enemies close."

Aurora rolled her eyes. She wasn't looking forward to seeing any of them, especially not Klaus.

'Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.' Tristan quoted Sun Tzu.

At the same time, in Algiers

In the Mikaelson House, the whole family got together for a wedding.

Rebekah knocked at the door of Elijah's room.

"Come in" Elijah said.

"Hey you" the blonde Original said as she walked in. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm fine." Elijah replied adjusting his tie.

"Come on, Elijah. The whole wedding prep must have been hard. You don't have to keep it inside you. I don't really understand why she didn't postpone the wedding."

"Today is about Freya and her wedding to Keelin." Elijah said.

"Yes - but -"

"No 'buts' - come on. We'll be late." Elijah said, gesturing to his sister to get going.

Rebekah shrugged her shoulders, giving into him. "I am going to stay a bit longer. And we will talk."

Elijah knew that his younger sister meant well, but sometimes she was a tad bit overbearing.

He was not ready to talk about his feelings. None of them. Especially not after he had overheard Camille talking on the phone to Vincent that Hayley was in a relationship with Damon.

Flashback
A day before

"What is this about Hayley and Damon? I'm sorry - I was not meant to eavesdrop" Elijah said moving into the room from the side door.

"Elijah - " Camille swiftly turned around, ending the call to the witch.

"I'm sorry - but it appears it was so."

"It appears? Do you have any proof?"

"Nothing solid. They were seen at a party together there." Camille replied, inhaling shakily.

"What party? Who saw them?" Elijah's eyes darkened.

"A witch saw them. Davina Claire. In Baton Rouge. A couple of weeks, before the murder."

Elijah turned sideways, his composure in tact, yet inside, his heart felt like someone had ran a knife, twisting it deep.

"She lied" Elijah muttered, "she told me she was going to Natchitoches."

"I'm sorry" Camille stepped forward, reaching out to her friend.

Elijah put his hand up to the blonde, gesturing to her that she should stay away from him.

Taking a deep breath now, he once again straightened his suit. Dealing with anybemotion was not on the plate. He took his phone and went down the stairs where his older sister was waiting.

"Finally," Klaus exclaimed, "let's get this show on the road."

"Yeah, let's do it." Freya said and took each brother by the arm.

They walked her out to the garden, where the wedding ceremony was going to take place.

It was a family affair. No guests. Out of respect to Elijah and his deceased fiance.

To Elijah, none of it mattered. He was in the world of his own. All through the reception, he just had one thing on his mind. Hayley and Damon.

As they finished with the polite small talk with his siblings, he filled his champagne glass and went to make a call.

"Gia - I want you to check all cctv of the French Quarter, especially the Bourbon Street, and the one where Damon Salvatore lived." Elijah said to the researcher. "And you report to me. Only me."

"You got it." Gia said.

Leaning on the neighbouring tree, his mind floated away to a conversation with Elena when they met at Klaus' exhibition a few days back.

Flashback

"I feel like I am stuck in the middle of a desert. It's crazy. I don't know why. Jeremy is ok. Life seems like it's kinda got back to normal. Maybe it's the grief. But - I don't know if it's that actually. I am so angry with my dad. He had this secret. Smuggling artefacts. And got me involved without me knowing so." Elena said.

"Waking through a desert is exactly how I feel, too." Elijah said.

Putting the glsss on the table, he took off.

He could hear Rebekah call out for him, but he disregarded her.

Taking his phone, he dialled Elena.

*
Elsewhere
Treme, New Orleans

"Camille will tell the Witch's Council about your involvement with Hayley, and the little pact you had."

Flashback

'You will get the ancestors to pass the magic to you or Kaleb is dead." Hayley said.

"The Witch's Council will know if I use the magic." Davina said.

"There is someone who will block the "sonar" or whatever you witches call the sensor. You got to do this New moon. Think of Kaleb." Hayley threatened the young witch.

"You got to go and tell the Witch's Council everything." Vincent now urged Davina to come forward.

"No. Never."

"Davina - they will protect you."

"They will kill me." the witch shook terrified. "You promised me that you won't tell anyone that I knew Hayley."

"Davina - do you know who killed Hayley, Damon, John and Aiden?"

"No!!! Leave me alone!" Davina shouted at Vincent.

*
Gretna, New Orleans

Elijah waited for Elena at the bench, not far from her house.

"Ice- cream?" Elijah was surprised as the doppelganger passed on a bowl of the creamy goodness.

"By the way you sounded on the phone, I thought that you needed an ice cream." Elena said. "You had bad news?!"

"It's amazing how you can detect something like that from - well - nothing I've actually said."

"Your voice was - uhm - kind of low - I knew something was not right." Elena said.

"I've known for what - two months in total and yet I feel like - I've known you forever."

"I guess we bonded - cuz we both lost someone close. Your sister's wedding today must have been tough."

"Uhm - it was not the wedding - it's," Elijah inhaled deeply, "it appears Hayley was seeing Damon behind my back - I mean they - it looks like they were together."

"Do you know this for sure?"

"I - haven't got anything solid - but - when I get through the last week before the murder - she was strangely absent. I attributed it to her being in Algiers, away from her pack. Her adoptive mother, Mary Kenner was not well. I though she was spending her time in the Bayou to be with her. I should have known that something more was going on."

"Elijah, if she did have a thi- something with Damon - it's not your fault. You can't blame yourself."

"I was an Agent for centuries - I should have picked up on it."

"You were in love." Elena tried to find a reason to lessen the guilt that was obviously plaguing the Original.

"A love that blinded me." Elijah concluded.

"But you said that you don't know for sure that they were hooking up - sorry, I don't want to make it sound - you know"

"Hooking up?" Elijah looked at Elena puzzled by the term.

"Uhm - when you're sexually involved with someone - but it's not that serious." Elena explained.

"I need to brush on my urban dictionary. Thank you for - meeting me. I hope I didn't drag you from something important."

"No - nothing important. I've been working on some illustrations for an e-book."

What she didn't say was that she had worked on another thing as well, namely a sketch portrait of him.

Earlier that day in Bonnie's Diner, in the French Quarter

"You're so in love with him." Bonnie said as she saw Elena work on the sketch of Elijah.

Elena didn't deny the remark by her best friend.

"But there's never going to be anything between us. He's just lost his fiance."

Elena flashed back to her conversation with Jeremy when she returned from Klaus' exhibition opening.

"It's all wrong. I got forget him and how I feel about him" Elena said to Bonnie.

"Talk about bad timing - if you know what I mean." Bonnie said.

"Yeah" Elena exhaled, closing the sketch book.

_to be continued

*
a/n:

Thank you so much for reading.
🤗💕