"You know, I'm awfully hurt that you and Christine didn't ask my advice right away regarding what to do with Sarah," Elijah told Selina as they undressed for bed. "I could have helped."
"I know you could," Selina replied. "But I just…you know how I feel about relying on you for every little thing. It's sweet of you to offer, but I think we have it under control."
"Well, good," Elijah replied as he took her in his arms. "But if something goes wrong, you know where I am."
"Yes, I do," Selina nodded and kissed him. "I'm sure Christine is really glad about that." She then grabbed him by his belt and led him over to the bed where she climbed in ahead of him and he gave her a spank. "Now," he said as he unzipped his pants and pushed her back onto the mattress while looming over her with a grin. "Let's talk about something else, all right?"
Selina giggled. "Oh, come on," she said. "I know you don't just want to talk." She then let out a shriek as he buried himself inside her with a quick thrust. "You're right," he said, panting. "I don't." Then he leaned down to kiss her while running his fingers through her dark hair.
"Damon?" Selina said in surprise when she saw that he was calling her on her cell phone during lunch the next day. "What…why are you calling me? Why can't you talk to Lucy about whatever it is that's bothering you?"
"Because she told me I had to fix it with Stefan," Damon replied. "She's told you that. She's staying at your house!"
"Are you still worried about your mom?" Selina asked, immediately deducing what the problem was because, as he'd said, Lucy had explained what was going on. "You have nothing to worry about. Why are you so freaked out anyway? Why can't you just let your mom be happy?"
"Said the woman who got pissed when her dad decided to start dating again," Damon shot back.
"That's different!" Selina replied. "The guy your mother is seeing isn't your stepson, is he? Our situations can't be compared at all."
"Yes, well, who cares?" Damon said impatiently. "What am I supposed to do?"
"Wish your mom good luck," Selina replied. "I'm sure you'll get used to the guy she's seeing eventually. And even if you don't, who knows how long it will last? I mean, think of all the horror movies in the world? Or what happened in Ghost. Spirit-human relationships just don't last. Hang on and it will all be over with soon."
"You think?" Damon asked.
"Yes," Selina nodded. "I do. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a class to go teach cause my lunch hour just ended. If you need to talk more, we'll do it when I get home around four, all right? Unless you find someone else to talk to in the meantime."
"Yeah, all right," Damon told her. "Thanks for the help."
"You're welcome," Selina said. "I hope it makes you feel better and that you eventually realize that both you and your brother are making yourselves crazy over nothing."
"I don't recall you being so calm when your father was dating someone else, but there you go," Damon reminded her, bringing that up once again.
"Again, Christine is my stepdaughter," Selina said impatiently. "My father was dating my stepdaughter. If that's not a weird thing to have to adjust to, I don't know what is. In fact, I'm surprised I came out of it as well as I did."
"Yes," Damon replied dryly. "You're a shining example to us all."
"Well, if you're gonna talk to me like that, I don't think I want to help you anymore," Selina told him and ended the call.
She got through the school day, but when she got home, she found herself having to deal with more trouble: Adrian had joined his sister on the sofa and both he and Lucy were looking at her impatiently.
"What's going on?" She asked. "Adrian, sweetie, is everything okay?"
"No," Adrian shook his head. "Apparently, Dad, Amy, Alistair, and Astrid are missing! Helene knew all about it, and so does Lucy here, but apparently, no one thought I needed to be extended the same courtesy. She let me think I was going out to dinner with Dad and Stefan, but when I met Stefan, that was when I found out that Dad was not only missing, but that he'd been gone for a little while. That would have been nice to know before I dragged my ass out for nothing!"
"Well the reason why we didn't tell you was because we didn't think you would care at all," Lucy told him. "You and Daddy aren't exactly close and you're not really good at paying attention to things that aren't about you!"
"Oh, don't you go there!" Adrian told her irritably. "Don't you go acting all superior and chiding me for not being close with Dad when you're much closer to Uncle Elijah than you ever were to Dad!"
"Hey, hey, hey!" Selina cried. "Stop snapping at each other. That won't accomplish anything."
"Well, then what will accomplish something?" Adrian asked his mother. "The people we usually rely on to fix something like this are gone too, so what now? Do we just sit and wait?"
"Yeah," Selina nodded and sat between her children. "I think that's all we can do now. Seeing as we don't know why they're gone or how. But it'll be okay, I know it."
"It better be," Adrian huffed. "Because who knows how much Helene's head will swell if she becomes the boss of the whole witch's council?"
"Why are you even married to Helene anyway?" Lucy wanted to know. "If you look at all the time you spend complaining about every little thing she does, it's like you don't like her at all."
"He gets that from your father," Selina replied. "They get mad and just lash out at everyone cause they don't want people to know how worried they are. I do that a little too, come to think of it. But I'm sure he still loves Helene."
"Yeah," Adrian nodded. "I suppose she does have some redeeming qualities." He stood up. "I'm gonna go now, since everyone here seems to be turning against me. Maybe I'll be more appreciated back at my own house. Or maybe not, if Helene still feels the need to lie to me about everything."
"Feel better!" Selina called after him. "You wanna take some cake home with you?"
"Okay," Adrian nodded, pausing and turning his head slightly. "Maybe just a little. Where is it?"
"Under the dome in the kitchen just like always. It's white with chocolate frosting."
"Good," Adrian nodded. "And don't tell me I have to share, cause I'm not."
"Wasn't gonna ask you to," Selina assured him. "Honestly, I wouldn't dream of it."
Once he was gone, Lucy hugged her mother. "Are you going to tell Uncle Elijah what happened to his brother?"
"Oh, I don't know," Selina sighed. "Knowing him, once he finds out, he'll want to fix it and I don't know if he can. Telling him would just worry him unnecessarily, especially since he's already got enough on his plate with work and helping Christine through her court business with Sarah. If he asks, I'll mention it, but if he doesn't, I'm not saying a word."
"Do you think that will make him angry?" Lucy asked.
"Maybe," Selina shrugged. "But I don't feel bad. I'm doing it for his own good."
"Long day?" Amelia asked Andrew as he came in the door about an hour after she did.
"Yeah," Andrew nodded and gave her a hug. "And I brought Matthew and Sarah home with me. I hope you don't mind. He's in the car talking to Christine on his phone and didn't want to come in until he was done."
"Oh, sure," Amelia nodded. "How is he?"
"Not much better," Andrew replied. "Although we've talked and I'm going to take possession of all his guns soon so he doesn't make things worse than they already are."
"That's probably a good idea," Amelia agreed. "You don't shoot, do you?"
"No, I like other hobbies," Andrew told her. "I may gamble, I may drink, but I don't shoot. The guns will be safe with me."
They then heard a knock on the door and Andrew went to get it and let in his brother who, as could be expected, was clutching Sarah to him tightly as if someone would snatch her way.
"Do you think I'm being stupid?" Matthew asked, sitting down and letting his daughter reach for her uncle. "I mean, you're the lawyer. Do you think I should just let this go cause I'm making a big fuss over nothing? It would be a lot less trouble if I did."
"That's true," Amelia agreed. "But how would you feel after you let Sarah be with the other guy? I mean, sure she wouldn't be with him all the time and it's not like you're giving up parental rights, but…would you really be okay with taking the easy way out?"
"No," Matthew shook his head and kissed Sarah's hair. "That's what I did with Selina and how I felt after that, well…I'm not putting myself through that again. I'm going to fight!"
"Well, there you go," Andrew said. "You have your answer. If that's how you truly feel, it's not silly."
"Yeah, damn right it's not!" Matthew exclaimed, his shoulders hunching. "Can I have Sarah back now?"
"All right," Andrew nodded obligingly and handed her back. "But you do realize that some time you're gonna have to let her expand her horizons, right?"
"Oh, there's years before that happens," Matthew replied as Sarah seemed to take his paranoia in stride, leaning her little body against his chest. "If I've still locked her away by the time she's old enough to go to prom or get married, you have my permission to commit me. I'll even write it down so you have proof."
"I wouldn't need your permission," Andrew replied. "If you're still acting like this when she's old enough to get married, I'd just commit you anyway."
"That's good to know," Matthew told him dryly. "You're a good brother."
"Aren't I just though?" Andrew smiled. "I'm seeing this as a nice distraction from things."
"What things?" Matthew asked.
"Have I told you that Andrew and I had a child?" Amelia said to her ex-husband. "How do you feel about that? Are you okay?"
"Why wouldn't I be?" Matthew asked. "Assuming that the child was conceived after I was already allegedly dead. I'm happy for you."
"Oh, he was conceived after you were dead," Amelia nodded. "And born after Andrew was. That's why I gave him up. But we've been thinking a lot of what he was like. I hope some nice, well-to-do couple adopted him and he had a comfortable life."
"Yeah," Andrew nodded. "That's what I hope too. He at least deserved as much as we could have given him."
"And the fact that he would get it without my crazy relatives being in the mix is just an added bonus," Amelia added.
"I'm sure he was fine," Andrew said. "Coming from us, I'm sure that he was resilient at least."
"Yeah," Amelia nodded and leaned against Andrew. "I'm sure of that too."
"Would it be intrusive if I asked how you became a vampire?" Charlotte asked Thomas before he went to bed. "Surely you weren't born that way."
"No," Thomas shook his head. "It was really just a strange thing that happened. It dismayed me at first, but I got used to it. I was working on steamboats going down the Mississippi as a ship's cook and one night, I ran into a stowaway who thought I was going to turn him over to the captain. So to keep his secret safe, he bit me. Killed me. And the next thing I knew, I was a vampire."
"And did you keep doing that same job once it happened?" Charlotte asked.
"For a little bit," Thomas nodded. "Since we were going from port to port, there wasn't really a chance to get caught, so I just kept doing what I was doing until the man who turned me convinced me that I was destined for bigger and better things than being a servant on ship. What we did after, that was amazing."
He yawned then and Charlotte said, "I think you should get changed for bed and go to sleep."
"All right," Thomas nodded. And without warning, he began stripping off his clothes. Charlotte shut her eyes, but her curiosity got the better of her and she peeked through her fingers.
"What are you doing?" He asked, moving her hands so that she got a full view of him in his boxers.
"I-I'm trying to give you privacy," she said. "I'm sorry. I'll leave now." She disappeared, leaving Thomas alone in his room with words of protest still on his lips. He waited for a few minutes, but when she didn't come back, he shook his head and got in his pajamas, shutting off the lights and climbing into bed and pulling the covers over himself.
When Charlotte was sure he was asleep, she came and occupied the empty side of the mattress next to him, gazing at him lovingly and kissing his forehead gently after moving a strand of hair out of his eyes. But by the time he opened his eyes again to see what had touched him, she was gone, and he was alone.