A few days later, when Vivi and King headed out of school and to their rides, Vivi was quick to notice that he was following her. "Are you crazy?" She asked him, giving him a swat on the arm. "Stop following me!"

King pointed. "The car that's taking me home is right there!"

Vivi's jaw dropped in horror when she realized that he was pointing at Kol's car. Kol was picking them both up because Selina was busy and Amy was too. "I'm not sharing a car with you!" She exclaimed, stomping her foot. "I get to ride in the car and you have to walk behind it."

"That's crazy!" King replied. "You be the one to walk behind the car!"

"No!" Vivi shook her head, watching as Kol stepped out. "We have to be fair about this: first one to the car gets to ride in it, the other has to walk behind."

"Okay," King replied. "One, two, three...go!"

They both made a run for the car as Kol and Regina (who was at the wheel practicing with her learner's permit) stared in shock. Vivi and King were pushing each other as they made their way across the parking lot and when King won, he chuckled. "I get to ride in the car!" He crowed. "You have to walk behind!"

Vivi struggled to get up, frowning deeply at her adversary.

"Everyone gets to ride in the car," Kol replied as he helped his niece to her feet. "Now get in!"

"Okay," Vivi replied, looking resentfully at King before she got in one side of the backseat and King got in the other. Vivi then magicked a curtain between them to separate them.

"What's that for?" King asked.

"So I don't have to look at your stupid face," Vivi replied.

"Well, your face is stupid too, so I don't want to look at it either!" King replied and stuck out his tongue just as Vivi got the curtain closed. Even then, he reached around it, poking Vivi's face, waving his hand around, and saying "Ignore the man behind the curtain" before bursting into laughter.

It was when Vivi finally bit King's hand hard and he yelled, "You bitch! That really hurt!" that Kol stepped in. "How about we just don't talk?" He said, cause he was starting to get a headache. "Can we do that? Please? I'm killing the first one who speaks."

Vivi magicked up a pencil and paper and wrote "are you lying?" on it before handing it to her uncle.

"No, I'm not lying," Kol replied. "And thank you for not speaking."

Vivi smiled and gave him a nod. Fortunately, King also took Kol's warning to heart and didn't say a word to Vivi on the ride home, allowing Kol to focus on helping Regina with her driving.

"How was picking up King and Vivi from school?" Margot asked him. "Difficult?"

"At first, cause they were snapping at each other," Kol replied. "But then I threatened to kill whoever talked and that made them silent really quick. And when we reached Father's to drop King off, it couldn't have happened soon enough. Vivi's playing video games with Regina in the living room now." He smiled. "You know, I never thought I'd say this, but I'm glad your grandmother cursed you so we only had one kid. I don't think I could have handled others."

"You know, I agree with you," Margot told him. "And speaking of our kid, how did Regina do with her driving today?"

"Not bad," Kol replied. "I was pleased."

"Good," Margot smiled and took him in her arms. "You need a drink?" She whispered in his ear.

"Yes," Kol replied. "A really, really big one!"

"All right," Margot nodded and gave him a deep kiss before sashaying from the bedroom to go get him his drink.

Kol chuckled to himself as he lay back on the bed. Margot was wonderful, there was no way around that. Not only was she beautiful, she was one of the few women he'd ever met that could actually out drink him and still stay on her feet. She never nagged him about being out late, or going hunting or anything. She was a perfect woman.

When she returned a few minutes later, he pulled her into his lap, drank his drink in one go, and then kissed her.

"Wow," she said, pushing some of her red hair out of her eyes when it was all over. "Nothing like the smell of alcohol to wake you up. I shouldn't have made you a double."

"It wasn't that bad, was it?" Kol asked and breathed on his hand. He went and got a mint or two out of the bowl in the kitchen and then came back. He waited until the mints had dissolved and kissed Margot again. "Better?" He asked.

"Yes," Margot smiled. "Much better! In fact, I'd like to kiss a little longer if you don't mind."

Kol smirked and shook his head, picking her up, laying her down on the bed, then climbing in after her and looming over her. "I don't mind at all," He replied, leaning down to kiss her again as his hand sneaked under her blouse (where he discovered she wasn't wearing a bra) while her arms went around his neck, and then her hands went up to play with his hair as stretched out on top of her and she shifted her body so she could more easily undress as she felt his waiting erection against her thigh.

"Dad?" Savannah asked. Klaus nodded and reached for his daughter as she opened the door to see her parents on the other side. She went to hug him back and when Minnie ran out of the house, Amy caught her just in time.

"There," Amy said and put Minnie back in the house. "She won't do you any good if she escapes."

They all went inside and Amy asked, "Do you get many mice around here?"

"Not a lot," Savannah replied. "But sometimes."

"Does that bother you?" Klaus asked. "I would have picked a newer house for you if I'd known this place was infested."

"Oh, don't worry about it," Savannah replied. "That's what we have the cat for."

"Good," Klaus replied. "Now, where's Putnam? And keep in mind that if you say he's not here, I won't be offended at all."

Savannah smirked. "Sorry to disappoint you, Daddy. But Jonathan is here."

Klaus groaned at this news and Amy gently elbowed him in the gut.

Savannah took hold of Minnie and then went off to find Jonathan, leaving Amy and Klaus to talk amongst themselves for a few minutes. "If you behave yourself, I have a surprise that I'm going to give you when we get home," Amy told him.

"Oh?" Klaus raised an eyebrow. "And just what is this surprise?"

Amy smiled. "It's not specifically what you're thinking, but if we make it through this in one piece, we can do that, too."

Upon hearing this, Klaus was intrigued and tried to do his best to get along with Jonathan, even though it was not without his difficulties. Just the sight of the man doing something as innocent as touching Savannah's hand made Klaus tense up and gnash his teeth. "Easy," Amy whispered. "Easy."

"So, Putnam," Klaus said between his teeth as he turned to face his son in law. "What do you think of the house?"

"Oh, it's very nice, thank you," Jonathan replied. "We have the occasional mouse skitter about, but that's pretty much the only problem. And even that's not a bad one."

"Good," Klaus replied. Then he turned to Savannah. "Is he still treating you well?"

"Of course, Daddy!" Savannah replied. "Why wouldn't he?"

"Well, you never know," Klaus replied. "He used to be a criminal."

Jonathan scoffed, rising to his feet. "I don't think, sir, that anyone with as long a list of murders on their resume as you has any right to question my relationship with Savannah based on my former felonious past."

"I'm sorry," Klaus replied, a grin on his lips. "Did I hit a nerve?"

"Okay, you two," Amy said. "You've had your fun, now let's just sit down and try to get along."

"Oh, I think we're past that," Jonathan told her. "Clearly, your husband won't be happy until he has a chance to finish me off! So I'll give him that chance and we can settle things like gentlemen."

"And just how would that be?" Savannah asked.

"Pistols in the backyard at ten paces?" Jonathan asked Klaus. "Is that agreeable to you?"

"Fine," Klaus replied.

"Wait!" Savannah cried. "Are you two seriously going to go to the backyard and shoot each other?"

"Well, you know I'm not a violent man, Savannah," Jonathan replied. "But if that's what it will take to prove myself to your father, then so be it!"

"Are you insane?" Savannah asked as she followed him upstairs to his gun cabinet. "Daddy could kill you! What are you thinking?"

"He won't kill me," Jonathan replied with confidence as he took two pistols from the cabinet. "He loves you too much to do anything that would jeopardize your relationship with him, even killing me. And even if he wounds me, you'll give me your blood to heal me, right?"

"Well, yes!" Savannah nodded. "But I still think this is insane."

"It is," Jonathan replied. "But it's something I have to do." He took hold of the pistols and marched resolutely down the stairs with Savannah trailing worriedly behind him. He reached Klaus and gave him a pistol, and then they both went outside and took their places, while Amy and Savannah stood aside, watching, their brows full of worry.

"I can't believe Daddy is doing this," Savannah said, gripping Amy's hand tight.

"I know," Amy replied. "I promised him good things if he could just behave himself, but I guess I'm not enough to overpower his hatred for Jonathan."

They watched as Klaus and Jonathan took their places and Jonathan counted off. Then, as the shots rang out, Savannah let out a yell and shut her eyes tight so she wouldn't have to see what happened.

When she opened her eyes again, she was on the ground and Amy, Klaus, and Jonathan were looking over her. "What happened?" She asked shakily as they helped her sit up and Jonathan cradled her in his arms. "What happened? Who won? Do you need blood?"

"No, darling," Klaus replied. "I-I didn't shoot him. I couldn't."

"He missed me by a mile," Jonathan replied. "As I did him."

"Oh, good," Savannah replied with a weak smile. "You two are gonna kill me, you know that?"

Klaus then looked up at Amy. "I'm not sorry," he told her.

"Well, I think some part of you is," Amy replied. "Or else you would have actually shot him."

"I guess I don't get my surprise, do I?" Klaus asked.

"We'll see," Amy told him as she watched Jonathan and Savannah hug each other tight. "We'll see."

When they got home, Amy told Klaus to sit on the sofa while she went to get his surprise.

"I get my surprise?" Klaus asked.

"Well, even though you two challenged one another to a duel and nearly gave both Savannah and I heart attacks, Jonathan was still alive when we left, so I consider that a victory," Amy replied. "So you get your surprise. It's something I have to give you sometime anyway, so it might as well be now." She then left and came back with a box labeled "Vivi Stuff To Save For Klaus", and dumped it all on the floor. It was multiple photo albums, video discs, and what looked like school projects.

"This is all the stuff Vivi did while we were gone," Amy told him. "I know you missed out on seeing it in person, so I wanted to keep it all for you so you could see it later. I know it's not as good as actually being there, but it's something...right?"

"You-you saved all this for me?" Klaus asked in amazement. "I don't...you didn't have to."

"Yes, I did," Amy replied. "It was about a month after I left that I realized doing so was a mistake. That it didn't help me as much as I thought it would."

"So why didn't you just come back?" Klaus asked as he picked up one of the albums and looked through the pictures.

"I tried to, you know?" Amy replied. "But the main reason I ran away was fear, so every time I got up the nerve to buy plane ticks, I just...I lost my nerve to go through with the plan."

"How come Vivi's so comfortable with me?" Klaus asked. "She didn't even remember meeting me before she got home from the airport!"

Amy sighed. "When I was packing before we went to Paris, I picked some hair off a brush of yours and stuck it in a bag so that when I was abroad with Vivi, I could, you know, use magic to make a duplicate of you so that she would know you when I finally got up the nerve to bring her back."

"So all this time," Klaus said. "The entire five years you were in Europe with her avoiding me, you still made efforts to help Vivi know me cause you knew that some day she'd see me again and you didn't want her to be afraid of me?"

Amy nodded. "Well, considering the cowardly way I acted while we were gone, I figured I at least owed you that much."

"Well, thank you," Klaus replied, feeling genuinely stunned. "I-I appreciate it."

"Thank you for not killing Jonathan," Amy replied. "I appreciate that." She then popped in a disk of baby Vivi walking and then she and Klaus sat next to each other, their hands entwined, watching Vivi take tiny steps, fall on her bottom, and with determination, get back up again.

"Nothing fazes her," Amy noted. "She doesn't take long to recover from things like I do...she's a tough girl. Not a coward."

"You shouldn't blame yourself for being scared of me after what I did to you," Klaus replied. "I would think you were crazy if you weren't."

At this, Amy lay her head on Klaus' shoulder and he ran his fingers through her hair. They continued watching the home movies until they heard a voice call out, "Mommy? Daddy? I'm home! Where are you?"

"There's our girl," Klaus said to Amy. He went to the front door, picked Vivi up, and brought her into the living room and sat her down between himself and Amy. "We were just watching video of when you were a baby," Amy told her. "Cause your father didn't get to see it and all."

"Well," Vivi smiled and leaned against Klaus. "I'm much cuter in person!"

"Yes, you are," Klaus nodded as he and Amy enveloped her in a hug before turning the movies back on again, this time with Vivi's spirited commentary in the background.