"You have got a lot of explaining to do, Niklaus!" Elijah yelled at his brother after storming into his house.
"Why?" Klaus asked, staring. "What have I done now?"
"Well, I've just discovered you have another illegitimate child to account for," Elijah replied. "First Robbie, and now a girl in my class, Christine. She's lycanthropic in nature and just revealed to me that she has fangs! She's a vampire too, which makes the pool of candidates to be her father very small."
"Even so," Klaus shot back, "I'm not the only option, you know. I admit you and Selina have been very close over the years, but you haven't been around her every minute. There have been times when you've strayed."
"How dare you?!" Elijah cried. "I admit that I had a relationship with her mother, but I couldn't possibly be her father!"
"Why not?" Klaus smiled. "You don't want to explain to your wife, one of the most notorious vampires ever, whose anger is triggered by infidelity, that you fathered a child with another woman? Is that why you're calling me the father?"
"Yes," Elijah's heart sank. "That."
Klaus chuckled. "I can't believe that after all these years you're still frightened of her. I wouldn't think that, brother."
"It's not that I'm frightened of her," Elijah corrected. "It's that I don't want to go through the sort of fighting that results from Selina and I facing each other in incidences like this. It's not pretty."
"Yes, and I'm sure that the angry sex that follows such fights is no fun either," Klaus said and then winked. "I'd go for it, brother. You should probably tell her as soon as possible. These things have a way of getting out, and you don't want her to think you lied or are keeping things from her."
"Oh, of course I'm nothing going to keep it from her," Elijah replied. "I just…I need time to gather my thoughts and figure out how I'm going to tell her."
"Good luck with that," Klaus said. "And once you and my new niece get to know each other, be sure to bring her over, all right? If she's a werewolf, I'd like to meet her."
"I don't need to bring her here," Elijah replied. "Like I said, she's a student at my school. Rosalie could probably introduce you if you asked nice enough." He then left, and spent the car ride home, (including a detour for cookies, which weren't bribery for Selina; they were for him. He occasionally took part in stress eating when necessary, and this was definitely necessary.) He pulled off the road and ate his cookies, then headed home.
Selina was just coming in the house after arriving home from school when the telephone rang. Seeing that it was Christine's mother, and believing that the woman had something else she wanted to talk about concerning conferences, she answered it.
"Hello, Mrs. Sharp, this is Ms. Warren. How many I help you? Do you have more questions about your daughter?"
"Actually yes," Christine's mother replied. "But the questions are for your husband. I don't think you'd be much help."
"He's not here right now," Selina replied. "Can I give him a message?"
"Okay," Christine's mother replied. "But the matter is a bit delicate. I wanted to tell him that he is in fact, Christine's father; that memories weren't the only thing I walked away with after our affair ended."
"All right," Selina nodded, gripping the phone hard and speaking through her teeth. "I'll tell him." She put the phone down and when Elijah strode in the door, she let out a growl and pushed him against the wall. "When were you gonna tell me you were Christine's father, huh? Or were you just gonna keep it a secret forever and hope I wouldn't find out?" She then transformed and bit his leg, not letting go until he whacked her repeatedly with an umbrella, and then she let him go and slunk away as he hobbled in pain to the sofa and sat down.
As he healed, Selina, now human again, strode back into the kitchen and Elijah watched as she chain smoked a few cigarettes and downed an entire bottle of gin while rarely stopping to breathe. When he could finally stand up, he grabbed her. "You don't know what you're doing," he told her. "I know this is a shock to you, but there's no need to resort to your old self-destructive behaviors."
"Oh, shut up!" Selina snapped, aiming a clumsy punch in his direction and missing. "Don't you tell me how to feel! Especially after the crappy way you've been treating poor Jack for no reason. He's not in love with me and he never will be, you territorial ass!"
Elijah picked her up then and put her over his shoulder. "You reek of gin," he told her and gave her bottom a slap. "I think you need to go to bed before you say or do anything else you'll regret."
"All right," Selina scoffed. "As long as you promise not to come in with me. I'd rather be alone."
"Oh, I'd be more than happy to accommodate that request," Elijah replied. "Now, I'm going to go talk to Renee and sort this whole mess out, and then I'll go set myself up in the spare bedroom so you can sleep off what you drank in peace."
"Fine, whatever," Selina replied. "I don't care. Good night."
"Good night," Elijah replied, and slammed the door behind himself after he left the bedroom. He then sat in the living room with Amanda, engaging in light, innocuous chatter before telling her goodnight and heading to bed for the evening.
The next morning, Elijah called school and told them that he and Selina wouldn't be in. Then, he strode into his and Selina's bedroom where Selina lay in bed with the covers over her head.
"Good morning, darling," he said to her. "Why don't we get you in some sunlight instead of you just hiding under the covers like that, shall we?" He pulled off her blankets and then opened the curtains to let the light in and she let out a shriek as if the light would burn her any minute although she was wearing her protective ring.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Elijah replied, even though he didn't feel sorry at all. "Is the light bothering you because you were foolish enough to drink an entire bottle of gin last night and now you're hungover?" He turned on the bedroom light and she cried out again.
"My god, will you stop?" She yelled. "I feel bad enough already and you're only making it worse."
"Oh, am I making you feel bad?" Elijah asked. "You nearly bit off my leg last night and then made the choice to get drunk instead of talking through this whole Christine situation like a reasonable person and you expect me to feel sorry for you now?"
"Well, why not?" Selina asked. "You cheated on me and let me hear about it from someone else! You should have told me yourself."
"I found out about the same time you did," Elijah replied. "Otherwise I would have told you before you found out like you did."
"Will you apologize now?" Selina wanted to know. "I think that would be best, and then we can move on and figure out how to deal with this. But first, I'd like some coffee and that stuff you give me whenever I drink too much. My head is killing me!"
"Apologize first, and then I'll get you what you need," Elijah said firmly.
"What have I got to apologize for?" Selina wanted to know. "I'm the wronged party here! I was the one who was cheated on!"
"Would you like to know when my relationship with Renee happened? It was right after Father released me from a six year captivity in a coffin because he was upset about my relationship with a certain someone," Elijah said. "I was released and all I could think about was seeing you and seeing our children. But instead, what do I find? You marrying my brother and pregnant with his child! If you hadn't miscarried, I'd have left and you'd never have seen me again!"
"I did what I did with Klaus because I was lonely and I had no idea when you would be coming back!" Selina replied. "I bet that's why you had sex with Renee too. You were lonely, just like me."
Elijah grabbed her arms then, squeezing hard and leaning in close so that they were nose to nose. Selina couldn't remember the last time she'd seen his gaze be as stormy as it was now. "Do you realize how much I've risked and given up to be with you?" He growled. "My relationship with my father was nearly destroyed because I chose to forsake my loyalty to him to rescue you and make sure you were all right. If you hadn't been on good terms with my family, I would have been cut off from them completely! Now, I don't regret it, of course, but doesn't that tell you how much I value you? Don't I deserve your unquestioned loyalty in return for all that I've given you? Or have you never cared about me as much as I have about you? Come on now. Be honest."
Selina's eyes were wide with shock now, her mouth opening and closing rapidly. She'd never thought of their relationship this way, and now she wasn't sure what to say that wouldn't make her sound like a total ass. Trying to ignore her throbbing head, she said at last, "I'm sorry, Elijah. I'm sorry I let my temper get the best of me so that I hurt you and treated you in way that doesn't at all reflect the way I feel about you. And I swear that from now on, I will deal with this whole Christine thing in a mature and responsible manner because what you had with her mother was in the past, and you're all mine now."
"Damn right," Elijah replied. "I'll be getting your coffee and hangover remedy now that you've given me a satisfactory apology."
He left and Selina cursed herself for not asking that whatever he was feeling about Jack be put in the bargain. Then she decided that it was probably best not to bring that up. At least not now. He was probably still pissed at her, and there was no need to make it worse.
When he brought her drinks in, she had a smile for him and, after downing them and putting the empty glasses on her night table to be taken away, gave him a long hug before consenting to be tucked in and spend the rest of the day in bed. This submissive behavior seemed to calm Elijah down somewhat and he even gave her a touch on the shoulder and a kiss on the cheek before he told her to let him know if she needed anything. Then, he turned off the light, shut the door, and left her to rest in peace.
"I have to tell you something," Amanda said to Viktor when she came into his room over the lunch hour the next day. He usually ate alone and he'd told all his students at the beginning of the year that if they needed to talk to him about something, it was one of the times they could do it.
"What is it?" Viktor asked and then offered Amanda some French fries before throwing his empty burger wrapper in the trash. "Are you all right?"
"You have to stop wearing that cologne," Amanda said.
"Why?" Viktor asked and sniffed his collar. "Don't you like it? It's one I'm rather fond of."
"It's nice, but my cousin Rosalie smelled it on me and she's curious!" Amanda cried. "She asked me who I'm seeing and I don't know what to tell her."
"Well, surely I'm not the only man who likes this scent," Viktor said calmly. "Just tell her that the man you're with is from another school and it will be impossible for her to meet him."
"Yeah, okay," Amanda nodded. "That's a good idea. But here's the problem: she's got werewolf heritage and an excellent sense of smell. She'll smell it on you and connect it to what scent was on me. She's gonna figure it out. Either we stop things right now, or you change cologne!"
"Well, I think that if those are my only two options, it's obvious which one I'll go with," Viktor said and came over to embrace her. "But I really think you're worrying about nothing. Everything will be fine."
"But Alexandra already suspects!" Amanda cried, her voice shrill. "If she knows, how long until the knowledge spreads? Hell, for all we know, the whole fucking school could know about us. I know you think I'm being unreasonable, but…I think, at least for awhile, until Rosalie finds other ways to entertain herself, we should keep our relationship professional, so to speak. I'm sorry, I know that condemns you to a life of horribleness with Alexandra, but-"
"Can we just give it a couple more days?" Viktor asked as he held her face in his hands. "Maybe this thing with Rosalie was a fluke, and you don't want to ruin a good thing over a fluke, do you?"
"No," Amanda shook her head. "I don't."
"And I swear, the second it seems like Rosalie or anyone else is on to us, we'll end things," Viktor promised. "Is that satisfactory?"
"Yes," Amanda replied. "I-I guess it is."
"Well, then," Viktor sprayed some breath freshener in his mouth. "Now that I've finished my lunch, you want to make the most of what little time we have?"
"Sure," Amanda nodded. "Why not?"
He then picked her up, her legs wrapping around his waist as he kissed her. She could feel a bulge under his suit pants against her bare legs. He then carried her over and braced her against the wall so he could push up her skirt and stroke her panties as she moaned, but the ringing of the bell stopped them from going any further. It startled Viktor so much that he dropped Amanda on her butt and she got to her feet muttering about a bruised tailbone.
"Sorry," Viktor apologized.
"It's all right," Amanda sighed. "And remember what I said about Rosalie. Be careful."
"Don't worry," Viktor promised. "I will."