Jonathan sighed as he stomped off to another meeting with Alistair. "Can we skip our talk today?" He asked. "I'm sure I don't need it."
"No," Alistair said flatly. "You do need it. That's the point."
"You don't trust me," Jonathan replied sourly. "What's wrong with a little trust between friends?"
"You aren't my friend," Alistair told him. "You've done bad things and now we're trying to cure you of your bad habits."
"What if I apologize to Amy?" Jonathan asked. "Would that solve things?"
"No," Alistair replied. "Being around her will only undo what work we've already done. If you want me to help you find someone else to date, I'd be more than happy to do that, but there's no way I'm letting you near Amy."
"And another thing I've noticed," Jonathan replied. "I can't seem to be able to leave this house. Why is that?"
"Because we don't want you to give in to temptation, that's why," Alistair told him. "Now, talk to me: How are you feeling?"
"Like I want to skip our session," Jonathan replied, eyes narrowed.
Just then, there was a knock on the door. "Alistair?" Elijah asked. "Can we talk?" Then, he noticed Jonathan. "Oh, I'm interrupting something. I'm sorry, I'll go."
"No, please sit!" Jonathan replied, standing up. "I insist. What he and I are doing here can wait." Then, grinning to himself as Elijah came into the room, he left with the goal of raiding Alistair's liquor cabinet.
"So," Alistair told Elijah. "What's the problem?"
"I can wait if his needs are more urgent than mine," Elijah said, gesturing out the open dor Jonathan had exited from. "It was Selina's idea that I come here anyway."
"Never mind," Alistair shook his head. "He can't leave the house. He'll be back eventually. So what's the problem?"
"It's Selina and me," Elijah told him. "We're having difficulties."
"What is it?" Alistair asked.
"Well, are you aware that Laura was married recently and is expecting a child?" Elijah asked him.
"No," Alistair shook his head and leaned forward. "But now I do. Am I correct in guessing that you aren't coping well with that? Is that why you're here?"
"Well, according to Selina I'm not coping well," Elijah replied. "But I think I'm doing fine."
"What have you done that would make her feel that way?" Alistair asked.
"Nothing," Elijah shrugged. "I simply suggested to Selina that we have another child to fill up Laura's empty room, and when she told me I had to wait, I decided to borrow Niklaus and Amy's daughter instead. She's really a sweet little girl."
"And when you say you 'decided to borrow' Savannah, what exactly does that entail?" Alistair asked.
"Nothing!" Elijah replied. "I just offered to babysit her is all."
"There has to be more to it than that," Alistair told him. "Selina, when she's in her right mind, is a very reasonable person. I'm sure that it would take more than a simple babysitting job to concern her."
Elijah sighed. "Well, I might have devoted every second of my time to Savannah's care, leading me to ignore Margaret and Annaliese."
"There you go," Alistair nodded. "You're neglecting your own children in favor of a baby who, although she's related to you, is not your child."
"Well, as I explained to Margaret," Elijah replied, "all my children are old enough to take care of themselves, whereas poor little Savannah is not."
"I agree, but did it occur to you to stop at some point and turn Savannah's care over to Selina so you could pay attention to your other children, even for just a little while?" Alistair asked.
"Oh, stop talking, Alistair!" Elijah replied irritably. "You sound just like everyone else who's scolded me recently."
In spite of himself, Alistair chuckled at that remark. "And what do you plan to do about that?" He asked. "What does that say to you?"
"I don't know," Elijah shrugged. "That people need to stop telling me how to run my life?"
Alistair sighed. "That's not the right answer, you know it. Perhaps you should tell Klaus and Amy to find another babysitter for Savannah, to remove the temptation."
"Oh, don't worry," Elijah replied sourly. "That's already been done."
"Has it?" Alistair asked. "Well, good! Now you can return to focusing on your family!"
"What good will that do me?" Elijah asked. "There are no babies in my family."
"Maybe not at the moment," Alistair said. "But perhaps if you make peace with your wife and find other things to work on, you might be surprised one day."
"Oh, I'm not sure," Elijah replied, standing up. "Selina seemed pretty insistent about keeping our family the way it is."
"Perhaps," Alistair told him. "And perhaps not. But you won't know until you start making an effort to improve things. You should leave now and do that."
"All right," Elijah nodded. "I will." He headed out the office door, and Alistair called out to him, "Before you go, could you find that man who was in here when you arrived and send him back?"
"Of course!" Elijah replied. Alistair waited, and a little while later, a sour-faced Jonathan Putnam came back into the office. "Very sneaky," he told Alistair. "You make me think I'm home free, and then you pull me back in!"
"I never said you were home free at all," Alistair told him. "That was just in your imagination. Now, where were we?"
Jonathan sighed. "You were prattling on about how I needed to avoid temptation." He paused. "That fellow who interrupted things: Who is he? What did he want?"
"That has nothing to do with you, so we won't be talking about it," Alistair replied sharply. "Now, focus!"
"Fine," Jonathan replied. "Prattle on." He got through the session, but once it was over, headed straight to the phone. He couldn't leave the house, but he still had one way to occupy himself that didn't involve Amy: Calling Margot. He dialed her number, heard the dial tone, and waited for her to answer.
"You know," Margot told Amy, "I have to give Kol a lot of props. I mean, you'd think he'd be shallow and not care a hell of a lot about babies, but Savannah disappeared on him while I was at the grocery store, and the guy was terrified! I got home and found him running around calling her name and stuff, and when I made her visible and she started falling to the floor, he *ran* to catch her. It was really touching, actually."
"Well, it's nice to know Savannah was in good hands," Amy replied. "Not that I doubted it, of course."
"Were you ever worried about how Klaus would be as a parent?" Margot asked.
"No," Amy shook her head. "He's raised other children before. I would say he's got more child-rearing experience than I do!"
Just then, the doorbell rang and Amy went to answer it. "Helene!" She cried happily. "How are you?"
"Not a vampire anymore," Helene grinned. "Mom fixed me up yesterday."
"Wonderful!" Amy replied. "I know you were looking forward to that."
"Hey, Helene!" Margot called. "How are you?"
"Good!" Helene told her. "And you?"
"Not bad," Margot replied. "So, what's new?"
"Well, Adrian and I can start trying to have our baby now," Helene replied. "That's new. And thank goodness Felicity seems to be on board with the plan, cause that was important to us." Then, she looked at Amy apologetically. "Sorry," she said. "I probably shouldn't be praising Felicity in front of you, should I?"
"It's all right," Amy replied. "Not that I condone torture, but I won't deny that since the temptation to please my parents is out of the way, my life is so much easier."
"I told you that a long time ago," Margot replied. "But you didn't believe me."
Just then, she heard her phone ring. She took it out of her pocket and went into a corner. "What do you want?" She snapped at Jonathan. "You aren't even supposed to be talking to me anymore."
"No, that's your sister," Jonathan replied dryly. "No one said anything about me talking to you. Unless, of course, you also have an overly muscular, extremely temperamental gentleman friend who will get upset, believing I'm attempting to steal your affections?"
Margot scoffed. "Well, I wouldn't exactly call him my gentleman friend," She replied. "At least I don't think so. But he's closer to me than you are at the moment!"
"How delightful," Jonathan replied. Margot could hear the smirk in his voice. "We shall have to meet sometime."
"Why?" Margot asked. "No, you don't! Why would you think that?"
"Because since you have no males around to oversee your dating process, I guess I shall have to do it," Jonathan replied.
"Why me?" Margot groaned. "You didn't pull that sort of bullshit with Amy!"
"Language, Margot!" Jonathan chided. "And as you know, thanks to that man, your sister got in a delicate condition and was obliged to marry him. She had no choice and I could do nothing. You on the other hand, still have time to make the right choices."
"Oh?" Margot asked coldly. "And pray tell, just what are the right choices in your mind? Don't tell me you want to take me down the aisle."
"Of course not!" Jonathan replied. "My heart will always belong to your sister, but that doesn't mean I cannot be concerned for you."
"Yes, it does!" Margot replied. "I'm a grown woman and you are not my father!"
"Even so-" Jonathan began before Margot cut him off. "La la la!" She yelled loudly into her phone. "I can't hear you!" Then she turned it off just in time to see Helene staring at her. "Are you all right?" She asked. "Who was on the phone?"
"I'm fine, and it was no one," Margot replied. "No one I wanted to talk to. Mosey on to the bathroom now. I'll be all right."
"Okay," Helene replied, still eying her nervously. "If you say so." She headed off to the bathroom and Margot waited a few seconds before running over to Amy. "I have some good news," she said. "You can tell Klaus he doesn't have to worry about Jonathan bugging you and Savannah. At least not for awhile."
"Is that so?" Amy asked. "What brought that change about?"
Margot sighed. "He's decided to put his effort into me instead, since I have no permanent 'gentleman friend' as he calls them, and no one's gotten me pregnant."
"Oh, sweetie," Amy replied, hugging her. "I'm sorry. But he's wrong, isn't he? You have Kol."
"But Kol's not my gentleman friend!" Margot replied. "He just lives with me, sleeps with me, and eats my food!"
"Sounds like he's your gentleman friend to me," Amy replied.
"Right," Margot nodded. "Now that I've said it out loud, I guess that's true."
"So you might want to let Kol know what you need from him in case Jonathan comes calling," Amy told her sister. "And I'll tell Klaus what you said. It'll make his day."
"I have to what?" Kol asked.
"You have to act like my boyfriend," Margot told him. "You know that guy Jonathan who's been a big pain in your brother's ass?"
"Yeah," Kol replied, eyes narrowed. "What about him?"
"Well, apparently, for the moment, he's decided to possibly be a big pain in yours," Margot replied. "He called while I was at Amy's the other day and told me that since I was single and not pregnant, he was gonna take it upon himself to find me an 'appropriate' boyfriend."
"Well, what's wrong with me?" Kol asked. "Hypothetically, I mean."
"You're not a warlock," Margot told him. "And Jonathan is one of the old-fashioned types."
Kol began laughing. "You're joking, right?" He asked when he could get his breath.
"No," Margot shook her head. "I'm not."
"So, how likely is it that we'll have to deal with this man soon?" Kol asked her.
"Well, he's currently at Alistair and Astrid's. There's a spell on the house preventing him from leaving, but I don't know how long that will last. I have no doubt that since he broke out of the Council jail, it's only a matter of time before he's able to leave Alistair and Astrid's, and when that happens, he'll come straight here to look for trouble." She paused. "I guess there's only one thing we can do to deal with this."
"And what's that?" Kol asked.
"I know you'll hate this," Margot replied, getting down on one knee. "But Kol, will you pretend to be my gentleman friend? It's the only thing that might keep Jonathan Putnam the hell away from me."
"Fine," Kol replied, pulling her up and giving her a kiss. "For your sake, Margot, I will be your gentleman friend and everything that entails."