"I hope you weren't expecting me to take you on a Valentine's date," Eli told Rebecca as he pushed her against the wall and pulled off her shirt, cupping her breasts with his hands while he bit her neck. "Louisa wanted to go, and I couldn't very well take both of you at the same time, could I?"

"Oh, don't worry about it," Rebecca assured him with a gasped as he slowly licked the blood up. "I like you buying me wine and getting me drunk much better. It adds a bit of a thrill, doesn't it?"

"I suppose it does," Eli nodded. "But you'll have to handle our hangovers in the morning."

"Why should I do that for you because you were silly enough to drink more than you could handle?" Rebecca asked. "You act as if we're dating so I have some obligation to take care of you when you screw up."

"Well, I did get you away from your mother after you had an accident," Eli replied, getting down on his knees, pulling down her jeans and underwear, and swirling his tongue around inside her after she obeyed his command to spread her legs as she rested her hands on his head and laughed. "Don't you think that should be worth something?" He asked as he brought his head up to stare at her. "Cause you know, Louisa appreciates what I do. It wouldn't hurt you to follow her example."

"You know, it's really childish and immature of you to mention Louisa and what she would do when you want something from me," Rebecca told him. "It's a horrible form of manipulation and maybe I don't like it."

"Well, fine," Eli replied. "If you think I'm being emotionally manipulative when I most certainly am not and you would rather go be with someone else, go ahead. I won't stop you."

Rebecca was taken aback. She hadn't expected him to react that way. She'd thought that he was gonna apologize and beg forgiveness instead. But apparently not." She twisted her mouth and said, "Well I might give you one more chance," she said. "But it's positively the last one, and then I'm looking elsewhere for company."

"All right," Eli replied. "Whatever. Oh, and I have to tell you that Louisa is introducing me to her parents tonight, at some big family shindig, and we plan on getting back tonight, but there's a big storm that could possibly delay us."

"Good to know," Rebecca replied. "I'll have to find some way to distract myself from missing you horribly."

"Oh, you can do it," Eli replied. "I have no doubt."


And that's exactly what she had to do that night. The storm made visibility on the roads practically non-existent, so Eli and Louisa had to stop off at a hotel for the night (in separate rooms, of course). Eli had called Rebecca to tell her this, and promised to give her a reward if she handled it well. She was able to at first, but as the night wore on, pictures of Louisa seducing Eli began floating through her mind. Finally, she was so convinced that that was what was going on at the hotel that she put on a coat, grabbed her umbrella, and headed out to a bar, chatting up the first attractive man to buy her a drink (A young guy with dark hair and brown eyes who was older than Eli, but not by much), before inviting him back to her house for a tryst, something that he took her up on without any protest while she imagined the look on Eli's face when he came and found them in the morning.


"Thank you for agreeing to do this while I handle my conference call," Elijah told Laura as she came through the door of her parents' house after answering a call to come before their scheduled father-daughter time cause he needed a favor and saw her father holding her sister. "I know you're not Amanda's biggest fan, but I really think you should spend some time with her. Even if it doesn't change your mind about her, it might help."

"I don't have to watch her alone, do I?" Laura asked. "Doesn't the thought of having someone who dislikes her watching her alone make you nervous?"

"No," Elijah shook his head. "I know that you're grown up enough not to do anything that would hurt your sister. But your mother is here too. And I'll be in my office. It won't take forever. Just about forty-five minutes. Then we can go to the amusement park just like we planned."

"And you'll still eat a hot dog?" Laura asked, "And a funnel cake?"

"Sure," Elijah replied. "Since you're doing this for me, whatever you want." He then left to make his conference call while Laura just stared at the baby in her arms.

"I don't know what to do with you," she confessed. "I've only ever had boys. I'm better with boys. You're like alien territory to me." She stared at the baby for a few more seconds before unconsciously sliding her tongue along her lower lip, an action that she was a bit surprised to see Amanda imitate. She made faces for a few minutes before her mother finally appeared and picked Amanda up. "Sorry about that," she said. "I was a bit busy."

"Oh, you don't have to be sorry," Laura assured her. "She's kinda cute, I guess."

"Well, good," Selina nodded. "I'm glad you think that."

"But at the same time," Laura continued, "it's very strange cause I never had a girl baby. You'd think it would be easy cause I'm a girl and she's a girl, but it's not."

"Oh, I know," Selina agreed. "The change between what Gregory needed as a baby and what you needed was jarring."

"Let me guess," Laura smiled. "I was needier."

"Well, yeah, but it's not like that bothered your father at all," Selina said. "He rather enjoyed it, just like he's doing with Amanda."

"Well, let's hope for her sake that she doesn't turn into an Annaliese and is like me or Margaret instead," Laura smiled. "What do you think she'll be like?"

"I don't know," Selina shrugged. "Probably wild and crazy cause it seems like that's the pattern with you kids: every time there's a calm kid, a wild one comes after, and I think we can all say Ethan was a calm one."

"Poor Amanda," Laura told her sister. "Use all the time you have to bond with Dad now because some day, he'll consider you a challenge."

"Who will?" Elijah asked as he came into the living room.

"You," Selina told him. "We've thought about the personality patterns of our children, and if the pattern holds true, Amanda will be a wild one."

"But I'm prepared this time, I think," Elijah replied. "It's not gonna bother me."

"Oh, we'll see," Selina grinned.

"You ready to go now?" Laura asked, handing her sister back to her mother. "Let's do it."

"All right," Elijah agreed and grabbed his keys out of his pocket. "Let's go."


"After the encounter with your friend, I had no idea you'd want to come somewhere with me," Eli told Rebecca, his voice bitter as they drove to his brother Charlie's house for dinner a few days after he'd found her in bed with the guy from the bar. "What made you change your mind?"

"The fact that I had no idea you had a rich brother," Rebecca answered. "I really wanna meet him. How did he get all his money?"

"Something with stationary, I think," Eli replied with a shrug. "And his wife manages some fashion magazine."

"Really?" Rebecca asked, her eyes wide. "Which one?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Eli asked. "I've never read a fashion magazine in my life."

"So you're saying you only dress as nice as you do cause you got blessed with good fashion sense?" Rebecca wanted to know.

"Well, yeah," Eli nodded. "You've never met my grandpa, have you?"

"No," Rebecca shook her head. "Are you saying that I get to?"

"No," Eli shook his head. "You made sure you never would when I found you with that guy after I assured you that nothing would happen between Louisa and me. Hell, the only reason why you're here now is that Charlie had heard about you and wanted to see you. Otherwise, I wouldn't have brought you at all."

He then went silent despite Rebecca's attempts to try and engage him in conversation, and after parking in the driveway of Charlie's house, got out of the car and strode toward the front door without helping Rebecca out or waiting for her to join him. This surprised Rebecca so much that Eli had already gone inside before she realized that she better get out of the car if she didn't want to stay there all night.

When she got to the door, and was greeted by Eli's brother, Eli told him, "See? I told you she'd stay in the car until it finally dawned on her that I wouldn't be back to help her out. You owe me five bucks."

"You are such a child," Rebecca scowled, elbowing him aside as she made her way into the house and searched for a drink. She found it, along with Charlie's wife Elizabeth, in the kitchen.

"Can I get you a drink?" Elizabeth asked.

"There's no need," Rebecca replied and zapped up an open bottle and taking a huge swig. "I can serve myself, thanks."

"Ah, I can recognize drinking like that," Elizabeth told her knowingly. "I've had moments like that with Charlie myself. You and Eli having a fight?"

"I guess you could say that," Rebecca replied. "But I don't know what his problem is. I didn't even do anything wrong."

"Well we still have some time before dinner," Elizabeth pointed out. "Wanna come and look at all my shoes? Hell, if we're the same size, I'll even give you a few pairs if you'd like. I get them for free all the time and Charlie is always saying I need to sort out my closets."

Rebecca stared at Elizabeth for a long moment and then reached out to pinch her as they made their way to Elizabeth's closet.

"What did you do that for?" Elizabeth wanted to know as she rubbed her arm.

"Sorry," Rebecca apologized, pushing some of her blonde hair out of her face. "I just wanted to make sure you were real or something. You know, as long as you're offering, I wouldn't mind some new shoes. Eli's always telling me that I need to be thriftier, so I haven't had anything new in a while."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Elizabeth empathized, putting a hand on her am. "My dad did that with my mom once, and she had to get a job to afford all the stuff she wanted to buy. There were fewer trips to the mall after that, let me tell you. Oh, and I can get you clothes too. Designer."

"Well, damn!" Rebecca shouted happily as she hugged Elizabeth. "I think I just made a new friend! I mean, technically, I'm a witch and can zap up whatever I want, but what's zapped up is never as good as what can be bought in a store. Don't you agree?"

"I do," Elizabeth nodded. "And I'll introduce you to my mom, too."

"That'll probably tick off Eli cause he hates me now and doesn't want me to have more to do with his family than is strictly necessary, but if you and I are friends because we decided it, how's that his business, and who the hell cares if it upsets him?" Rebecca said. "I would love to meet your mom."

"Sounds good," Elizabeth replied. "I'll tell her all about you and call you up with a date, if that's all right."

"Yeah, sure," Rebecca nodded. "Perfect."


By the time they'd finished going through Elizabeth's shoe collection and Rebecca had taken a few pairs for herself at Elizabeth's insistence, they were called down to dinner, but instead of sitting by their husbands, they sat next to each other, whispering things and giving Eli and Charlie sneaky, smug looks.

"Is it just me," Eli whispered to his brother as he watched the pair of women, blonde haired Rebecca and brunette Elizabeth across the table. "Or are you filled with a sense of unease too?"

"A little bit," Charlie whispered back. "But try not to show it. They can smell fear."

"What are you boys talking about?" Elizabeth asked.

"Oh, nothing," Charlie replied easily. "Just how pretty you two are."

"Flatterer," Rebecca smiled.

"He's always been able to think on his feet," Elizabeth agreed.

"Can we just eat?" Eli wanted to know. "And talk about normal things like food and the weather instead of whatever you two are talking about? I would feel more secure if I was in on the conversation."

"Oh, well," Rebecca put on hand to her chest. "Heaven forbid you be uncomfortable by my doing things and bonding with people when you have no part of it. Let's just do whatever we have to so you won't be uncomfortable."

It was then that Elizabeth grabbed her arm. "You know, I know a really good restaurant a couple of miles from here. Great Italian food. You wanna go instead of eating here?"

"Sure!" Rebecca said. "Let's go!" They then got up and left, leaving Charlie and Eli eating alone and staring at each other, afraid for what might happen.