"Oh, my god!" Katherine let out a shriek when she opened her eyes in the morning and found Rodan lying next to her so that they were practically nose to nose and he was looking right at her, his eyes being all she could see. "What are you doing?"
"I just wanted to rest in my bed after my rather fitful night and tell you good morning," Rodan replied with a grin. "And see the shocked look on your face. I knew you would be scared."
"Scared is not what I was," Katherine refuted. "Shocked and surprised, but not scared. You are the last person I would be scared of."
"Well, I don't want you to be scared of me," Rodan told her. Katherine thought she saw some shock and hurt in his eyes at the thought of her fearing him, but it was just for a moment and she was sure she had just been hallucinating. "So that's good. You want breakfast?"
"Sure, but I'll be eating alone," Katherine told him.
"Why?" Rodan asked. "Why is it so important to you to be alone?"
"Cause I know why you brought me here," Katherine told him. "And there's no way you're getting that. Not now, anyway."
"I am capable of giving my libido a rest and just having a conversation," he told her.
"I'll believe that when I see it," Katherine said.
Despite his continued insistence that he would behave himself, Katherine kept him at a distance. She refused any physical contact and any time he tried to talk to her, she would yell at him. She continued to wear the sweatpants and t-shirt of shame as well, and wouldn't sleep in his bed as long as she knew he would be in it with her.
He really didn't want to, but finally, after a few more days, he had to concede defeat, at least for the time being.
"I want you to go," he told her one day at breakfast. "I clearly misjudged you. You're not the sort of woman I need."
"What?" Katherine asked in genuine surprise. "Are you actually admitting out loud that you want someone more pliable and easily done in by your shallow charms than me?"
"Yes," Rodan nodded. "I bet that makes you happy."
"Well, it'll make my daughter happy at any rate," Katherine nodded. "I've been gone for days with very little contact. I bet she's worried about me."
"Not if she knows you well, she's not," Rodan replied. "I bet she knows you can take care of yourself." He went to the door and opened it. "I know I didn't give you time to grab any belongings before you left, so you can go at any time. I won't stop you."
This was something Katherine had been waiting to hear since he'd first brought her through the door. But now that it was actually happening, she felt let down. "I can't believe you're actually kicking me out!" She cried. "How dare you! How can I not be good enough for you?"
"I never said you weren't good enough for me," Rodan told her. "But you're clearly not in any sort of mood to do what I want you to, so why bother? And I thought you would be happy that I was letting you go. Do you want to stay after all?"
"Well, no," Katherine admitted. "But I was hoping to leave after, you know, defeating you in a battle of wills and leaving you sobbing and broken on the floor. That would have been a victory for me, you know?"
"Ah, your need to control things again, that's it," Rodan smiled. "If I let you go, I'm still controlling your fate and you don't like that."
"Well, obviously," Katherine spat and pouted as she stayed seated in her chair, her arms crossed while she ignored the open door.
"So you're just going to stay here?" Rodan asked. "When you clearly don't want to? What are you going to do?"
"I'm not just gonna stay here!" Katherine cried. "I'm gonna leave. But first…" She punched him three times in the face in rapid succession, then when he was down on the floor (cause he knew that falling down would be the only way she would go) and had a hand on his eye, that was when she ran out the door, thinking to herself, "I'm free. This is good!" Then, once she was away from the house, she called Elizabeth on her cell phone and had her daughter come and pick her up to take her home.
"So let me get this straight," Elizabeth said to her mother when they were in the safety of their own living room. "He actually planned to keep you at his house forever as some sort of…mistress or something?"
"Yes," Katherine nodded. "Apparently, that was the plan, which is why I'm glad as hell to be out of there and have control of my own life again."
"I don't blame you," Elizabeth told her. "I'm glad you're back too. And I'm…I'm sorry that I pushed you to go out with him. If it hadn't been for me, you wouldn't have been stuck where you were."
"Oh, don't beat yourself up," Katherine insisted. "You didn't know what his plan for me was. If you had, I know you would have insisted that I stay here."
"Right," Elizabeth nodded. "Exactly. Oh, and Dad called while you were gone to tell me how things were going for him in Europe. He also wanted me to tell you that he wishes you well on whatever you choose to do with your life from now on."
"Well, that's nice," Katherine smiled. "And so like your father."
"Yeah," Elizabeth nodded. "Isn't it just though?"
Since she was so relieved to be home, Katherine thought it would be easy to get back into the rhythm of being in her own bed every night and making her own choices unchallenged by anyone, but she soon found out that it wouldn't be as easy as all that, especially at night. Even though she'd booted Rodan out of his own bed most of the time and had taken it for herself, he'd evidently been there long enough that being alone made sleep very difficult. The worst part was grasping only at sheets when at Rodan's house, she'd had his muscular body to hold onto as she slept.
"Are you okay, Mom?" Elizabeth questioned after noticing that her mother looked listless and exhausted as she sat down at the breakfast table. "You've looked the same way every morning since you came back from Rodan's. Have you not been sleeping well?"
"I've tried to sleep well," Katherine grumbled. "But every time I close my eyes, I see him and his muscular body and it makes sleeping very difficult."
"I'm sorry about that," Elizabeth told her because she didn't know what else to say. "If I told you I wanted to go see Charlie for a bit today, would you be all right here by yourself?"
"Sure I would," Katherine nodded. "Go and see your husband. You don't need to look after me every second. I managed well long before you were born and I can keep doing so if you're not around. Not that I'm not grateful for your company, but…you know."
"All right," Elizabeth nodded, getting up and grabbing her purse off the kitchen table. "I'll be back tonight if you want me to be. Or I could just stay home. Whatever you prefer. Oh, and did I mention that Dad called while you were gone and told me to wish you the best of luck?"
"Yeah," Katherine assured her. "You did."
"Okay, good," Elizabeth smiled. "I'm gonna go now. Take care of yourself!"
When Katherine heard the slam of the door, she remained at the kitchen table, not saying a word and trying to revel in the silence, in the fact that she was finally in complete control of her world again.
But that contentment was fragile at best and soon, she was thinking about Rodan again. How, even as annoying as he was, he made her life have excitement. He was another body in the house. And (even she had to admit in spite of herself, he was really, really hot.) She wondered if her discontentment since she'd returned home meant that she missed him. That there was something about him that filled a need for her that no one else could, even if she didn't like him that much. It could be a possibility. It wouldn't hurt to give it a shot.
Nodding resolutely, she got up off the chair, packed a bag, and set off to find Rodan's. It took her some time to find, but when she reached it, she parked in the driveway, debating strenuously with herself about whether she should actually go in or not.
"This time it was your choice," she told herself. "Coming here, I mean. He didn't force you. You packed a bag and drove here because you missed how he shook up your world. Don't do this halfway. Just take a breath and go." She then got out of the car, grabbed her bag out of the trunk, and strode up to the front door, knocking furiously and hoping he would come and pull her inside before she changed her mind and left.
"Katherine?" He said in amazement when he opened the door. "You came back. Why?"
"I don't know," Katherine replied. "I was bored. Now, let me in before I run off again. Unless of course you don't actually want me here."
"Oh, I do," he said with a grin as he picked her up and put her over one shoulder and took her bag with his free hand. "No doubt about that. I'm glad you came back."
The next day, Selina came home over the lunch hour and found Dorian in his office, swearing repeatedly under his breath. "Well, when I saw your car, I was going to ask if you wanted to have a little fun before I went back to work, but I can see you're not really in the mood for it." She sat down on the side of the desk. "What's the matter? You wanna share? Maybe I can help."
"All right," Dorian nodded, glad he didn't have to go through this alone. He doubted what she could actually do to help, but he never let a chance to tell her something that was weighing on him go to waste. "I just found out that another demon, one of my worst rivals, has been set loose and is roaming around just waiting for the chance to cause trouble for me."
"I'm sorry," Selina replied. "What's his name? It's a guy, right?"
"Yeah," Dorian sighed. "And his name is Rodan. He's the biggest son of a bitch you'll ever meet."
"Oh, I doubt that," Selina told him. "I've met many jerks in my time."
"Yes, but not Rodan," Dorian told her. "Trust me on this. He is the worst of the worst. He was really bitter that Hazel chose me to be one of the more important demons and has made trouble for me since it happened. I can't get away from him. He's like a terrible disease or something."
"I have a person like that in my life," Selina said. "I mean, it's not as bad between us as it used to be, but Katherine Pierce and I…well, when she steals your fiancé, almost kills you and your baby, and orchestrates things so that you become a vampire and really come to hate one of the few people you trusted your whole human life…well, that makes you not a good person, does it?"
"I'm sorry you had to go through all that," Dorian soothed her, taking her in his lap and giving her a hug. "Is she still around?"
"Yeah," Selina confirmed, her tone dark. "She could outlive a cockroach. I just hope she and this Rodan don't meet. It could be real trouble."
"You really think so?" Dorian asked.
"Yeah," Selina nodded, eyes narrowed. "I do."
"You have to make me look really good!" Lily told Laura as she sat down in the salon chair after deciding to take her sister up on the offer to do her hair. "Can you do it? Wait, stupid question. I know you can. Do your best!"
"Why?" Laura asked. "What's the emergency?" She directed her to a sink to wash her hair and when Lily sat down and tilted her head back, began running the water.
"It's not really an emergency per se, but there's this guy that I have a weird sort of on-again, off again relationship with and we just had a huge fight. I've been avoiding him and I decided that that's childish, so I want to go see him. But I want to look really good before I do it so he feels really bad about treating me like crap," Lily explained.
"Well, I have to say that I don't think you need help in that department, but whatever you want me to do, I'll do it." Laura told her. "Did you want to dye your hair?"
"Nah, not yet," Lily shook her head. "Make it really soft and kind of poofy. And I think I have split ends."
"You do," Laura nodded, inspecting them. "But we can get rid of those quick."
"Thanks," Lily smiled at her. "You're the best."
Laura trimmed her hair and made it big, and after that, even let Lily go through her closet to find something hot to wear when she went to see Arthur.
"I really look good," she remarked as she twirled around in the white dress and red pumps. "Thanks for this. I can't say I have anything particularly sexy in my wardrobe at home." She then looked down at her chest. "You wouldn't happen to have a push-up bra or anything like that on you, would you?"
"Oh, you don't need that," Laura shook her head. "You look great just like that. He'll be speechless and full of regret."
"Well, good!" Lily grinned at herself in the mirror as Laura stood behind her. "That's exactly how I want him to feel."
"Hi, Lily," Selina greeted her when she strode purposefully through the house looking for Arthur. "Nice to see you. You haven't been around in a while. And your hair looks wonderful!"
"Thanks, I went to see Laura," Lily told her with a smile. "Now, where's your son so I can throw how pretty I am in his face? He's not out with other girls, is he?"
"No, he's in his room," Selina said. "You remember where that is?"
"Yeah," Lily nodded and stomped there, knocking loudly on the door.
"What?" Arthur yelled, his face changing when he saw her. For a moment, he was shocked, then his shock changed to anger, and then nonchalance as he cleared his throat. "Lily, what a nice surprise," he said in a monotone voice. "What can I do for you?"
"You can tell me why we've not seen each other in so long!" Lily replied. "I keep telling myself that I'm avoiding you, but it's you who's been avoiding me!"
"Well, that's because I thought you would rather be shacking up with my enemy," Arthur told her. You like him now, remember? You seemed pretty happy he was fucking you. How can you expect me to just take you back and pretend nothing happened after I saw something like that, huh?" He then paused and stepped toward her, his eyes sweeping over her body. "You know, you look really good. Is this get up for me? Were you trying to get me back?" He grinned. "You made a good effort."
It was then that Lily slapped him, her face becoming demon-like for a moment. "No, I didn't do this for you!" She spat. "Could you be any more of a self-centered asshole? I came here dressed like this so you could see what you're missing. And now that you know what that is, I'm leaving and you can just be regretful about what you're not getting."
"Fine!" He called as she strode from his room. "Leave! I don't care! I know you'll be back. And next time, I'm gonna dump you!"
"Yeah, I'd like to see you try!" Lily yelled. "Whatever you say or do, it's not gonna affect me. You're nothing! I hate you!"
Arthur gave her the finger that she would never see, but his mother did as she made her way toward his room
"Well, that's real friendly," she remarked.
"That wasn't aimed at you," Arthur replied, blushing.
"Well, I should hope not," Selina told him. "What was all that shouting about?"
"Lily came here and had the gall to tell me that I didn't have the right to be upset that I caught her sleeping with a guy I hated," Arthur said.
"Now, this might just be me not understanding demon stuff, but how come you can be mad at her for sleeping with the guy she was sleeping with, but she can't be mad at you for the liaisons I know you had at school? They probably hurt her."
"Yeah, sure, but none of that was done to intentionally piss her off," Arthur reminded his mother. "That was just me doing my duty. But the guy she slept with, she had to have known (Cause the point of the kidnapping was to rile me up) that the guy she was with was someone I didn't like. She intentionally upset me."
"All right," Selina nodded, putting her hands up and stepping away. "I'm gonna stay out of this now, but before I do, I'm going to tell you that spending your life being mad at someone you love because they slept with someone you didn't like, that's…that's poison, no matter how satisfying it might seem to you right now. Don't let your anger at Lily now drive her away from you forever."
"You seem like you're talking from experience," Arthur told her. "You wanna share?"
"Well, yes," Selina nodded. "The first guy I was ever engaged to as a human was a man named Damon Salvatore. He was one of the few people in my human life that I actually thought of as a friend and as the years went by, we fell in love. Then the Civil War hit and before he went off to fight, he proposed to me, and I asked him to have sex with me before he left, in case he never came back. I didn't want anyone else to be my first, especially not the sort of guys my mother wanted me to marry." She shuddered.
"Not long after he left, I got sick, and while I was being cared for, I found out I was pregnant with his baby. I hid out at the doctor's house so my mother wouldn't find out and scold me for disgracing the family name, but when Damon left the army early and came home, he was…he was told that I was dead by a vampire named Katherine Pierce who was staying at my house. She'd come into our lives as the daughter of one of my stepfathers, but she was really just a vampire who'd messed with the man's mind to get near me. The reasons for that are irrelevant, though, so don't ask. Anyway, for multiple reasons, she needed me out of the way to get close to my fiancé and she turned him into a vampire, and for years, both him and I thought the other was unfaithful, and we carried those grudges on and off forever. We let our unhappiness and jealousy make us hate one of the few people we both considered a genuine friend and a person we truly believed we could love forever. Do you want things to be like that with you and Lily? Say no. Tell me you're not foolish enough to say 'Yes'."
"Oh, all right," Arthur sighed. "I'll forgive Lily for what she did. I'll try and make peace with her. But I'm still mad."
"I know," Selina told him and gave him a hug. "But there are other ways to deal with that. Want me to show you some of them?"