As soon as Selina recovered her equilibrium, she left Lucy's house and drove back to the spot where the sheriff and her men had found the body. She parked in the grass and opened the car door, getting out and slamming it behind her. The body's makeshift grave hadn't been filled in, and the area was still surrounded by yellow crime scene tape. After making sure that there was no one around to see what she was doing, Selina ducked under the tape and stood at the edge of the hole, staring down into it. Soon, she noticed something poking out of the dirt. She got down on her knees and began digging deeper until what she had seen was revealed: a small, rusty pistol. Selina picked it up and ran her hands over it. Was it more evidence that her mother had committed suicide? But the body had a hole in the skull that indicated it had been bludgeoned. Selina frowned and turned it over again.
It was a very old weapon, seemingly as old as the skeleton it was buried with, but Selina didn't know much about weaponry so she couldn't be sure. After scratching off some dirt, she noticed that the pistol had initials on it, M.A.W. Selina had no idea who that was, but whoever it was, she wondered what their pistol was doing in her mother's grave. Had they given it to her so that she could end a life she found so difficult to live? And if they had, why was the hole in the skeleton's skull much too big to have come from a pistol shot? Feeling tears threaten to fall down her cheeks, Selina threw the pistol back in the grave and headed back to her car, but instead of heading to the boarding house, she drove to the nearest mall and spent the rest of the day engaging in retail therapy.
By the time she got back to the boardinghouse, it was after dark. The incident at Lucy's still fresh in her mind, Selina figured she'd have to tell somebody about it just in case Lucy acted on her promise to destroy the town. But it definitely wouldn't be Stefan because he would just berate her for going to Lucy's house after he and Elena had made her promise not to. That left Damon, although Selina assumed he wouldn't be too happy with her either, but she knew how to soften him up.
After she was sure that everyone was asleep, she went to her old bedroom and exchanged her clothes for one of the more extravagant things she'd gotten at the mall: a dark red lace and silk teddy. She then tiptoed through the dark hallway being very careful not to bump into anything, and when she reached her and Damon's bedroom, knocked on the door. It took awhile, but eventually, she heard movement. The door opened a crack, and she heard Damon whisper in a grumpy voice "Stefan, what do you want at this time of nigh…" He trailed off when he saw it wasn't his brother, but Selina instead.
"Did I come at a bad time?" she whispered. "I can leave and come back later. I just thought that since you were gone all day today, and I was gone all day today, it might be nice to have some time alone."
Damon was gaping at her. "Sweetheart," he finally managed to get out, "where'd this come from?" he gestured wildly at her outfit.
She looked down at it for a moment and said dismissively "it's nothing. Just a little something I picked up at the mall. Are you going to let me in, or are we just going to stand here staring at each other?"
He blinked. "Oh, yeah sure. Come on in!"
As she climbed onto the bed, he asked "are you going to be needing any drinks this time?"
She shook her head. "I don't think so, but it all depends on what you want." She gave him a smoldering glance. He was just about to climb on to the bed when he paused and attempted to give her a hard look.
"Not that I'm looking a gift horse in the mouth here, but can I inquire about the reason for all your…generosity?" he asked, looking her over as she lay down on her back and spread out on the bed.
"I told you," she said. "I missed you today and I want us to spend some time together." Her face became blank. "I'm not Katherine, Damon. I don't do things like this because I have ulterior motives."
He sighed and climbed up next to her. "You're right; I'm sorry."
She pushed herself up on her elbows and kissed him. "I forgive you." Then, she pulled the covers over them and they weren't aware of anything else.
The next morning, much to her surprise, Selina was out of bed before Damon was. She went downstairs for a glass of orange juice and by the time she got back upstairs, he was awake.
"And how are you this morning?" she asked as he entered, shutting the door behind her.
"Good," she said, smiling. "Great, just wonderful."
She climbed back into bed and kissed him. "I have something to confess," she said as she pulled away. "Yesterday, I went over to Lucy's, and it didn't exactly go well."
Damon frowned. "How well didn't it go?"
"Well," Selina hopped off the bed and stood facing him with her hands on her hips. "I basically accused her of killing my mother, because I mean come on, who else could have done it, right?" She paused to take a breath and then plowed on. "Then, she got really angry and said that she was going to commit a whole lot of evil against the town. And not only that, that I was going to join her when she did the worst of it. Isn't that awful?"
"My God, Selina." Damon sucked in his breath. "If you weren't dressed like that, do you realize how angry I'd be at you right now?"
"I know," Selina gave him a small smile. "Why do you think I did this?"
He looked at her pointedly. "Be serious for a minute, all right? Now what exactly did Lucy say to you?"
"Before she choked me or after?" Selina asked.
Damon shook his head. "It doesn't matter. Just tell me what she said when she talked about destroying the town."
"She said 'what happened with your cousin, the police officer and the Gilbert boy was only the beginning. We can do wonders, Selina. You can either come with me and the town will be spared any danger, or you can oppose me, and have to live with the guilt that you've doomed everyone'."
"Well," Damon said after a moment. "She sounds serious. Now, I know Stefan and I have said this several times, but every time you've ignored it so I'm going to say it again—"
Selina sighed. "You don't have to, I know what it is: stay away from Lucy because she's dangerous."
Damon nodded. "That's right. Are you actually going to listen this time, or are you just paying me lip service again?"
Selina shook her head. "No, I actually mean it. I don't want to get beat up again. Lucy really is a lot tougher than she looks." Selina paused. "Please don't tell Stefan about this; otherwise he'll get on his soapbox and I'm going to have to hear a lecture."
"I won't tell him," Damon promised. "This is just between us."
At school, after history class, Alaric asked Selina to stay behind.
"What do you need, Mr. Saltzman?" Selina asked him. "Did I do something wrong?"
"No," Alaric shook his head. "I just wanted to apologize for reading the article about Amelia Warren in class. I saw you had some problems with it."
Selina shook her head. "It's all right. It's just that she's my family."
"Yeah," Alaric nodded. "It must be difficult to hear about how your mother was very possibly bludgeoned to death by an unknown assailant."
"Yeah, it really…hold on a minute," Selina said. "Did you just refer to Amelia Warren as my mother?"
"Yes I did," Alaric said. "She is, isn't she Selina?"
Selina looked at him, stunned. "How'd you figure it out?" she asked.
"Your ring," he said. "My wife was a bit of a vampire enthusiast and they seemed to be part of the folklore."
"Oh." Selina looked down at the ring as if she'd forgotten it.
"And," he continued, "I stumbled across an old picture of you in the town archives. You know, you really haven't changed a bit."
"Yes I have," Selina said. "I've changed in every possible way." She paused. "So now that you know about me, what are you going to do with that knowledge? Are you going to turn me in? Because I'll have you know that the Lockwoods are sworn to protect me. It won't do you any good."
He shook his head. "I don't want to turn you in. you seem harmless enough."
"Thanks a lot," Selina scoffed.
"But I do want to help you figure out who killed your mother," he said. "Would you let me?"
Selina thought a moment. "Sure, you can help. In fact I'd be grateful," she told him.
After school, Selina, Stefan, Damon and Elena congregated in the boardinghouse kitchen. "Mr. Saltzman knows about me," Selina said. "But he promised he wouldn't turn me in. And he offered to help us figure out who killed my mother." She paused. "Speaking of my mother, yesterday, I went back to the spot where the sheriff found her body. The hole hadn't been filled in yet and I noticed something sticking out of the dirt. I managed to dig it out and saw that it was a small, badly tarnished pistol."
"Your mother's makeshift grave seems to have all sorts of surprises in it, doesn't it?" Stefan asked.
"It sure does," Selina agreed. "Anyway, there was nothing really remarkable about the pistol until I wiped some dirt off it and found that it had some initials on it: M.A.W. I assume that M.A.W. gave Mama the gun to shoot herself with."
"Oh?" Elena replied, standing up. "Now you think your mother's death was suicide by pistol shot? Yesterday, you were convinced she was beaten to death and that Lucy was the perpetrator."
Selina nodded. "So much so that I went over to her house and accused her. It made her kind of angry and she's promised vengeance on the entire town. And she said that I was going to take part in all the evil-doing with her."
Damon saw that Stefan was about to begin a lecture, caught Stefan's eye and shook his head, causing Stefan to shut his mouth.
"We'll deal with anything that comes up," was all he said after awhile.
Selina turned to Elena. "And she threatened Jeremy too. Have you and Jenna been watching him carefully?" she asked.
Elena nodded. "But especially since Lucy seems really pissed off and intent on causing harm, we wouldn't mind a little help."
"What do you mean?" Selina asked.
"Well," Elena replied, "would you consider moving in with us until this whole mess blows over? Then, we'd have someone around who could fight off Lucy if she pulled anything, and protect Jeremy better if he got any ideas. What do you say?"
"All right," Selina replied. "As long as your aunt's okay with it."
Elena smiled. "Of course she will be. She really likes you and wants you to come over again."
"What are we going to tell her about why I need to stay with you?"
Elena thought a moment. "We'll say you were the victim of a major insect infestation and people are coming to spray so you can't be in your house."
"But I'm going to need to be there more than a couple of days and exterminators wouldn't take more than that. Unless they were really inept of course."
"Don't worry about it," Elena grinned. "We'll think of something."
Lucy parked her car in the street near the Lockwood mansion and walked slowly up the drive. When she was at the front door, she rang the doorbell and was surprised when the mayor himself let her in.
"Hi," she said to him. "I'm Lucy Andrews, from the historical society. We spoke on the phone a couple of days ago about the materials you had to contribute to the exhibit about Amelia and Matthew Warren."
"Yes of course," Mayor Lockwood said, grinning wide. "Come along with me and I'll show them to you." He led Lucy to a room at the back of the house which doubled as a vault and held several old documents and items pertaining to Amelia and Matthew Warren. "I'm so pleased the historical society decided to put the exhibit on," he said. He pulled out a journal that Matthew Warren had written in while he was at war and showed it to Lucy. "I think you'll like what's in here," he said, handing it to her. She leafed through it gently. "He writes a lot about Amelia and their daughter Selina in here. Do you think you'll be able to use it?"
Lucy closed the diary and nodded, grinning. "Oh, yes," she told him. "Yes I will indeed."