"Victoria," Kai said next time he called her. "Would you be a darling and do me a favor?"

"It depends," Victoria replied. "What is it?"

"I want you to give me Christine's phone number so I can arrange a play date with the twins and Sarah next time I have them," Kai told her. "Don't you think that would be fun?"

"That depends," Victoria said. "Are you having this play date just so your uncle can see Sarah?"

"What if I am?" Kai asked. "What's wrong with him seeing Sarah? He loves Sarah."

"Well that may be, but I think I need to respect her parents' wishes not to let Malachai anywhere near their daughter," Victoria replied. "Don't you get it?"

"What, just because Matthew is insecure, that means Malachai should never be able to see Sarah when he did nothing to deserve such a punishment?" Kai asked. "Matthew shot at him! Way to punish a victim, Victoria!"

"Don't you give me that, Malachai Parker!" Victoria told him. "While I'm well aware that Matthew was the one who shot your uncle, I can't deny there's a reason why he did so: your uncle makes him anxious. Now, I'm sure that if you give them time, there will be a way to work something out so Malachai can have what he wants, but…we can't push it now, okay?"

"Fine," Kai sighed. "Whatever. Uncle Malachai will be so depressed."

"Well, he's an adult," Victoria said firmly. "I'm sure he and Uncle Klaus will go out and get drunk or something and then Malachai won't know about it at all."

"Actually, Malachai hasn't seen Klaus in a while and I don't know why," Kai replied. "Now, I'm gonna ask one more time: No number?"

"No," Victoria shook her head. "No number. But, I will let you take Molly or Finn, or both to see Malachai."

"You will?" Kai asked in surprise. "Even though they're at Renee's right now?"

"Yes," Victoria sighed. "I know you won't let anything happen to them."

"Of course I won't," Kai assured her. "You can bring them over whenever you want. Adrian and Helene have gone out with Alistair and Astrid, so I'm here by myself. If I made dinner…could we eat as a family?"

"All right," Victoria told him. "Why not?"

"Great!" Kai told her. "You need me to come over first and help you get the twins into the car and stuff?"

"Thanks, but I can handle it," Victoria told him. "See you in the little bit."

Kai opened the door so quickly in response to Victoria's knock that she had to wonder if he'd been waiting on the other side of the door.

"Hi!" He said, smiling brightly and taking Finn's carrier out of Victoria's hand and asking her to follow him into the kitchen.

Victoria followed him obligingly and sniffed. "You've gotten dinner done already?" She asked.

"Yeah," Kai nodded. "Did you think I would make you wait?"

"Well, no," Victoria replied, her dark eyes bright as she gave him a little smile. "I don't know why I'm surprised, but I just am. I'm impressed."

"Impressed enough to take me back?" Kai asked.

"Are you nagging?" Victoria asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No," Kai told her quickly. "But come on! I'm cooking for you!" He paused. "See? Now I'm nagging."

She rolled her eyes and then gasped as they reached the dining room. The long, wide wood table was covered with lots of different foods: bowls of pasta, a turkey, a bowl of salad, a tureen of soup, pancakes, hamburgers, baked potatoes…it made Victoria full just looking at it.

"Couldn't really decide what to eat?" She asked Kai dryly as she turned away from the table.

"I knew it was too much," he said as he helped her put the twins in their high chairs. "But I just couldn't help myself. I wanted to impress you."

"Well, I am impressed, she assured him as he pulled out a chair for her and asked her if she wanted wine.

"I'll have a little," Victoria agreed. "And please don't tell me that you have as much planned for dessert as you do for dinner. I won't have room!"

By the time Adrian and Helene returned from Alistair and Astrid's, Kai and Victoria were eating dessert.

"Well, this is a surprise," Adrian said as he sat down at the table and reached for some pie even though he hadn't been invited. "Nice to see you, Victoria."

"Nice to see you too, Adrian," Victoria told him. "How has your evening been?"

"Great!" Adrian replied. "We had a very good night at Alistair and Astrid's. James and Lenora were there too, and they're always a good time."

Victoria then turned her head back to her husband just in time to watch him feed Molly some chocolate pudding. She opened her mouth to protest, but then quickly shut it when she saw the look of joy in her little girl's eyes.

"See, she likes it!" Kai told her.

"You better be careful about all the food you're giving her," Victoria told him.

"Why, because it's bad for her?" Kai wanted to know.

"No," Victoria shook her head. "Because she'll know what foods are good and bad and you'll never have a single meal to yourself ever again."

"You have a good point," Kai remarked. As Molly sat with her mouth open, waiting for more pudding, Kai took the bowl and said to her firmly, "You're little. One spoonful is good enough for you now." He then gave a spoonful to Finn too, just to be fair, while (of course) Molly let out a terrible wail and used her magic to move the bowl out of her father's hand. She didn't have a spoon, so she just stuck her little hand in the bowl and smeared the pudding all over her face and in her hair.

"We can take Finn while you give Molly a bath," Adrian offered while Helene cheered silently behind his back.

"Thanks," Kai told him. "Sounds good to me." He then looked at Victoria. "Should I bring them home tomorrow night?"

"Or whatever," Victoria replied. "Keep them until they drive you nuts and then I'll take them back."

"All right," Kai said. "Thanks, Vicky."

Victoria headed to the door. "You're welcome, Malachai," she said, and headed back to Kol and Margot's.

"Are you sure she won't give you the number?" Malachai asked Kai when he brought the twins to visit him at Renee's the next day. Although he was happy to see Molly especially, he was still really concerned about seeing Sarah.

"Yes, I'm sure," Kai told him. "Sorry. I tried my hardest. I really can't afford to alienate her so much now, you know? We made so much progress last night."

"That's okay," Malachai told him. "I had a plan B in mind for if you couldn't do it. Thanks for trying."

"No problem," Kai replied.

Malachai momentarily excused himself, promising he would be back soon, and got in his car to drive down to the Council building where he ran into Helene. "You're not Astrid!" He said in surprise. "I need to talk to Astrid about a private matter."

"All right," Helene nodded. "What's your name? She's out at the moment, but I'll try and help you. I'm her daughter Helene, by the way."

"Hello," Malachai replied. "Malachai McCullough."

"Oh, the guy who put his sperm in the human bank," Helene nodded. "I remember you. What's up?"

"I want to know if there's any way I can have access to the daughter I fathered. I found her and she lives with people who have no magic, and I just…I feel it's my duty to make sure she has someone in her life with magic to look after her."

"Well, have you talked to the family?" Helene asked. "Maybe if you talked to them, they'd let you see her."

"I've tried, but…the father is a bit unstable and won't let me in the house," Malachai said. "I figured if I had some sort of official document, they'd have to let me in. Can you help me?"

"All right," Helene replied. "When Mom gets back, we'll see what we can do. I'm sure we'll be able to help you out, though."

When Astrid returned, Helene explained what happened and then Astrid said to Malachai, "I know you've tried talking to them, but let's try it again. Maybe it'll go better if Helene and I go with you. If that doesn't go well, and we see there's no actual reason to deny your claim, we'll make papers up for you."

"Him!" Christine cried when she came home with Sarah one day and found Helene and Astrid sitting in her living room on either side of Malachai (who'd called Kai to tell him it would take him longer to get home than expected) after getting in using the key under the mat. "What's he doing here? Astrid, when you told me that you needed to talk to me, you didn't say that he would come with you."

"I know but I think we need to talk about him," Astrid told her. "Sit down, please."

"All right," Christine sighed and went to put Sarah in her room, even though the baby was reaching for Malachai over her shoulder.

When she came back, Christine sat in a chair opposite them and said, "Okay, what's the problem?"

"Mr. McCullough says he's worried about the environment your daughter is living in here, and that your husband is unstable. Is there merit to those claims?" Astrid wanted to know.

"Keep in mind that her husband shot at me!" Malachai said. "Who knows how many guns he has around here?"

"He keeps them locked up," Christine told her. "He'd never let Sarah be hurt."

"Not intentionally, I'm sure," Malachai told her. "But accidents happen."

"You're still not getting her," Christine told him. "I don't care if you have magic. You're shacking up with my mother and she's a terrible influence. Not to mention you caused my husband to have a breakdown. You should be ashamed of yourself!"

Malachai sighed and turned to Astrid. "It doesn't seem like she's going to budge, and we've tried to be reasonable. What do we do now?"

"You leave us alone and let us choose when or if you're going to visit!" Christine shouted. "You don't do that and we'll get a lawyer!"

"I need to ask you a question," Astrid said to Christine. "How are you compensating for the fact that neither you nor your husband have magical powers and your daughter does?"

"My friend Eva and her husband are living with us," Christine explained. "They help with that. I'll even call her here and she'll tell you about it!"

"No, there's no need," Astrid said quickly and then she sighed. "Do you honestly think that can be a permanent solution? Wouldn't it just be easier if you could have someone like Malachai help you?"

"No!" Christine said again. "No, it wouldn't be easier! I want him out of my house now!" She felt anger rise up in herself and tried to keep calm so Astrid wouldn't think that Sarah was being raised by two lunatics with bad tempers. She cleared her throat and sat down, wiping off her sweaty hands on her jeans. "What I mean to say is that if he wants to have time with Sarah, he'll have to talk to my lawyer about it. That's my final answer."

"I think you're making a mistake," Malachai told her as he rose and Astrid rose with him, her face full of worry. "But if that's how you wanna do it, we'll see you in court."