Disclaimer: Only Plot and original characters belong to me!
The next morning, Selina woke up to the feeling of warm fingers being gently drawn down her bare back. "Mornin' Nicky," she said sleepily and collapsed face first onto her pillow. "Grrr, I don't want to get out of bed! It's nice in here."
"I feel the same, love," Klaus said, gently turning her over to face him. "My god," he said. "You're beautiful." Selina giggled and flushed. "No, I'm not," she said, hiding her face. "You're just saying that!"
"No!" He shook his head. "I'm not, I promise."
Selina pulled her face off the pillow. "Well, I guess you're not so bad-looking yourself," she said.
He smirked. "I gave you a much more flattering compliment."
"Yeah, well," she grinned, kissing him. "Just trying to keep you humble. If I told you what I really thought of you, your head would swell up and there wouldn't be any room for it in here. The ceiling would break apart."
At that, he turned her over on her back and loomed over her. "Hush," he said and kissed her again. She giggled as her arms went around his neck. "Here we go again!" She said happily.
After round two, Selina's alarm rang. She sighed and sat up. "I guess it's time for us to start the day, right?"
Klaus nodded. "Yes, but that doesn't mean we won't be back here later."
Selina pushed the covers aside and got out of bed. Klaus kept his eyes on her as she walked to the bathroom to shower. "Now stop looking at me like that," she said, trying to stay serious. "If you keep looking at me like that, we'll never get anything done."
"If you wanted, I could join you in the shower," he said.
Selina shook her head. "Not today. Alistair's not here yet and one of us has to keep our ears open in case the kids need anything. Today, it's your turn."
Klaus sighed and got out of bed himself, putting on his boxers and a t-shirt. "Of all days for Alistair to be late..." he muttered under his breath.
While Selina showered, he checked on Lissy and got her dressed. Then he took a look at Laura and Colin, who seemed fine for the moment. Gregory's door was closed.
He brought Felicity to the dining room and Laura joined him a few minutes later. She was wearing a pair of pink leggings, an orange skirt, and a red top. "Good morning," she said. "I dressed myself today. Mommy didn't even have to help!"
"Yes," Klaus replied. "And you did a lovely job. You look nice."
"Thank you," Laura said and sat down. They waited at the kitchen table until Selina appeared with Colin. "Sorry I kept you all waiting," she said. "Everyone okay in here?"
"Yeah," Laura nodded and stood up. "Look, Mommy. I dressed myself today!"
"Good job," Selina told her. "Learning to do things by yourself is very important." She sat Colin down in his high chair and said, "All right, who wants breakfast?"
After breakfast, Selina tried once more to reach out to Gregory, but she failed. When Alistair arrived and sequestered himself in Elijah's office, Selina followed, shutting the door behind her. "I need advice," she said. "Will you help me?"
"All right," Alistair said. "Have a seat. What do you need?"
"It's about Gregory," Selina told him. "Ever since Elijah left, Gregory's been upset. I want to help him, but I don't know how. I've tried to explain that Elijah is gone, but it just doesn't seem to be getting through to him. And seeing me with Klaus is upsetting him too, but I deserve to have a life besides my kids, don't I? Am I wrong for not letting a five-year-old make me feel guilty? Am I selfish?"
"No," Alistair replied. "I wouldn't say you're a bad mother. It's healthy to have your own interests outside of your children. You're not doing anything wrong."
"See!" Selina sat up straighter. "You get it. Why can't Gregory? Why does he have to shame me every time I try to enjoy myself?"
"Gregory is young," Alistair said. "He and Elijah were very close. When Elijah went away, Gregory lost his major source of support since you have to spend so much time taking care of the younger children. He's angry and grieving and feels like someone should take the blame for Elijah's loss, so he picked you since you've been able to move on a lot quicker than he has. I know it isn't fair, but that's what's going on, and I don't think there's any one thing you can do to make him feel better toward you. I'm afraid you'll just have to wait this one out."
"And what's up with that anyway?" Selina asked. "I give and give to my kids. I love them and care for them and we're close when they're babies, but the second they get older, they move on to someone else, you know, Klaus, Elijah or whoever and I just feel like I don't matter. It's Lonely Heart all over again, only this is the 'Sad Mommy' version and all I wanna do is cry instead of kill."
"Children bond with different people," Alistair said. "Just because the kids don't spend a lot of time with you doesn't mean they don't love you. Adrian loves you. Did you forget about him?"
"But he's the only one," Selina replied. "Well, him and Sam. There might be someone else too, but I can't think of them at the moment. I just want things with Gregory and me to be better."
"Well, maybe," Alistair began, an idea suddenly hitting him. "Maybe if you and Klaus tried to find Elijah and bring him back, that would improve your standing in Gregory's eyes because he'd see you still have some commitment to his father even if Elijah's not here."
"But we have no idea where Elijah is," Selina said. "That's the main problem. That and I don't know if Nicky would separate from Felicity long enough to go on a quest to get Elijah, especially since, as I previously pointed out, we have no idea where he is."
"If you mention it to him, you might be surprised at what Klaus says," Alistair told her. "Go ahead and do it. What do you have to lose?"
When Lenora, Damon and Lucy arrived home that night, the first thing they did was go see Alistair. "We're back!" Lenora told him. "Everything went okay."
"And you kept track of your father?" Alistair asked her. "You didn't lose him or anything?"
"No, I didn't lose him, Lenora said. It was then that Alistair noticed she had a leash looped around her wrist. She moved aside and Adrian the bunny, who was looking very sad in Alistair's opinion, hopped forward a few hops and then sat.
"I'll go get the rest of the stuff out of the car," Damon said. He looked at Lucy. "Would you help me?"
"Sure," Lucy nodded. "Let's go."
Once they were gone, Lenora said to Alistair, "Where's Mom? Can we get her to turn Daddy back now?"
"Yes, we will, but I have to tell you something about your mother first," Alistair told her gently. "You know how your daddy gave Felicity to Grandpa Klaus to watch?"
Lenora nodded. "Uh-huh. And Mommy got upset and she turned Daddy into a bunny. I know all that."
"Well," Alistair cleared his throat. "While you were gone with Damon and Lucy, your mother tried to take Felicity back and then hurt your sister with her magic."
"Oh, my gosh!" Lenora gasped. "Is Felicity okay?"
"Yes, she's fine," Alistair nodded. "She's back with Grandpa Klaus and Grandma Selina and everything is okay. But the bad news is that your Grandma Astrid and the other members of the council have decided that since your mother hurt your sister, she has to have her powers taken away. And in order for that to happen, your mother is going to be gone for awhile."
"Good," Lenora nodded. "Mom should be in trouble for hurting Felicity." She paused. "Maybe I should go with her. I did something bad too."
"What did you do?" Alistair asked. "Are you hurt? Did you hurt someone?"
"No," Lenora shook her head. "But remember how Grandma Astrid gave Mom and Dad Tobias Potter to watch?"
"Yes," Alistair nodded. "What about him?"
"Well, when we were in the woods, I met his son, and when Daniel told me that his mother wanted to see his father, I kinda gave him to her."
"What?!" Alistair's eyes widened. "You mean we don't have Tobias with us anymore? His wife has him? Oh, for the love of-"
Lenora held her wrists out. "You can arrest me and take me to jail now," she said. "I know I did something bad."
"No," Alistair said, running his fingers through his hair. "When the council hears Theresa was involved, I'm sure no one will blame you. She's a very sneaky woman. You couldn't have known how devious she is."
Lenora put her hands down. "So I'm not in trouble?"
"No," Alistair shook her head. "I'm sure your Grandma Astrid will put in a good word for you and nothing bad will happen." He looked down at Adrian the bunny and said, "Just a minute." He left and came back with a very frazzled-looking Helene.
"Hi, Lenora," she said. "I'm so happy to see you!" She reached out to hug her daughter, but Lenora sidestepped it. "Yeah, right!" She said. "Turn Daddy back now!"
Helene turned to Alistair. "Do I have to?"
"Yes," Alistair nodded. "It's the last act of magic you'll be able to perform. Do it now."
Helene grumbled. "Not only am I gonna lose my powers, but the last act of magic I get to perform is turning my stupid husband back into a person. What a waste."
"You wouldn't be in this situation if you'd just learned to control yourself," Alistair reminded her. "Don't blame anyone else for something that is your own fault."
"And his fault!" Helene said in outrage, her head tilted in Adrian the bunny's direction. "If he hadn't taken Felicity to his father without telling me, none of this would have happened."
"I agree that that had something to do with all this, but you turned him mostly because he told you that he wanted a bigger part in raising the girls and that upset you," Alistair said. "Isn't that right?"
"Well, yes," Helene nodded. "But who does he think he is saying stuff like that? We were perfectly happy. Why did he have to go and ruin it by opening his big fat mouth?"
"I wasn't happy," Lenora told her. "I wanted to learn vampire and werewolf stuff and you wouldn't let me! If it wasn't for Damon, I wouldn't know anything at all!"
"What?" Damon asked. He looked back and forth between Helene and Lenora's angry faces and then looked at Lucy.
"We're interrupting something, aren't we?" Lucy asked. "Sorry about that. We'll go back to the car."
"No, it's okay, Aunt Lucy," Lenora said. "We're done now." She left and Alistair once again attempted to reason with Helene. "You have to turn him back," He said. "Don't you want Felicity to grow up knowing at least one of her parents?"
"Well, yeah!" Helene replied. "But the parent she should know is me, not Adrian! He abandoned me, damn it! And who's to say he won't do the same thing to her?"
"Well, with you gone, that's just a risk we'll have to take," Alistair said. "Turn him back. Now."
Helene rolled her eyes. "Fine," she said and flicked her hand. The bunny rose into the air and then began to shift and coalesce until it turned back into Adrian. He began to cough and sputter because the leash was still around his neck. "Help!" He coughed. "Help!"
Alistair quickly got the leash off him and said, "Why don't you go talk to Lenora? It's probably the best thing right now."
"Yeah," Adrian agreed. "But before Helene goes, can I just say that I hope she gets the help she needs?"
"If anyone needs help, it's you!" Helene called after him as he turned his back on her and walked away.
"That's enough now!" Alistair said to her. "Let's go!"
"I was talking with Alistair yesterday morning," Selina told Klaus at breakfast the next day. It had taken her a whole day to decide to put the 'find Elijah' idea to Klaus. "And he mentioned something interesting to me."
"What about?" Klaus asked. He was doing his best to try and feed Felicity and listen to Selina at the same time and it wasn't going well.
Selina noticed this and went to the kitchen to get him a towel. "I could do that for you," she offered. "It would stop you from having to do laundry so often."
Klaus looked up at her. "Thank you," he said as he wiped what he could off his shirt. "But I think I can persevere. Now, what were you talking about with Alistair?"
"Well, I've been having trouble relating to Gregory ever since Elijah was...immobilized because the kid can't seem to understand that I can't just magically make Elijah appear, and Alistair suggested that maybe if you and I tried to go find Elijah, that might make Gregory more pleasant toward both of us. What do you say?"
Klaus shrugged. "I don't know," he said. He looked down at Felicity. "We'd have to leave Lissy behind, wouldn't we?"
Selina shrugged. "Not necessarily, but it would probably make things easier if we did."
Klaus sighed. "Well then I'm torn because you know I want to avenge my brother, but the thought of leaving Lissy behind to do it...suddenly it makes revenge lose its appeal."
"Well, we don't have to decide right now," Selina said. "We don't even have to do it if you don't want to. It was just an idea."
"No, I want to," Klaus said. "But I also don't want to leave Lissy behind, so we're just in a hard place, aren't we?"
"Yeah, " Selina nodded. "Normally, we could ask Alistair to babysit, but he's gone. I suppose we could leave them all with your mother."
"No!" Klaus' eyes widened. "Not for that long of a time. But then that doesn't leave anyone, does it?"
Just then, the doorbell rang.
"Who could that be?" Selina asked. She went to open the door and Klaus heard her let out a shriek that made Felicity start crying.
"Who is it?" He called as he tried to calm her down.
Just then, Selina came into the kitchen, followed by Adrian, who looked first at his father, then at Lissy nestled in Klaus' arms. "Hi, Dad," he said. "I'm not a bunny anymore. And I want to see my daughter."
