"Why haven't you come and visited your uncle and me very much?" Amelia asked Selina. "We set up a room for you and everything, just like you asked. Is it because our house is decorated crazy and it scares you?"

"Oh, please, Mama," Selina told her. "After all I've been through in my life, the last thing that would scare me is deer heads on a wall that's wall-papered in roses."

"Well, why then?" Amelia asked. "Is it me?"

"No, I've just been a little busy," Selina told her. "Elijah and I are trying to get me pregnant again and it's taking longer than it has in the past."

"Oh," Amelia nodded. "Sorry, I didn't know. Don't let me interfere with that. You just come over when you're ready. In fact, why don't you take a break this weekend? Your uncle is going to spend a few days trying to calm your father down. Maybe you and I could use that time to get reacquainted now that we're on better footing. What do you think?"

"Well," Selina replied, trying to sound enthusiastic although the voice in her head was screaming, 'No! Don't do it! You'll regret it for the rest of your life!' "Well, I think…I think that could be fun. Why not?"

"Good," Amelia told her. "We'll have fun, I promise. I'm really looking forward to us having a chance to get reacquainted."

"Yeah," Selina replied. "Me too. Can't wait!" She then ended the call and collapsed into a chair with her head in her hands, wondering what in the world she'd gotten herself into and if she should call again and back out before her mother got her hopes up too high. Maybe she could ask Elijah when he got home. He was good at helping her with these kinds of things. And she was sure that it wouldn't be too long before he got back from wherever it was that he'd gone. He never stayed out too late at any place, especially if he had to be somewhere like school the next day. He was the sort who was all about being well-rested and on the ball, and staying out late wouldn't help him do that. So she sat by the door and waited for him to come home, hoping that it would really take as little time as she thought it would.

"Should I go and hang out with my mother?" Selina asked Elijah, springing up from her chair and pouncing on him as he came in the door and before he'd even had time to remove his coat. "On the one hand, she's right that we're getting along much better…but are we getting along well enough that putting us in the same room without any sort of referee will end well? Cause I have years and years of memories that say it won't."

"Well, would you like me to come with you?" Elijah asked as he hung his coat up. He was used to being ambushed for advice and took it in stride. "I would be more than happy to."

Selina put a hand on his cheek. "You know, you're very sweet, but Mama has her heart set on this being an all-girls thing and I think it would hurt her if I brought you. She might believe that I don't trust her."

"Well, you don't yet, do you?" Elijah asked.

Selina shrugged. "I don't know. It's a shame Damon's mother has gone her own way now. I could have used her. I'll try and go in with a good attitude and we'll just see what happens. You know, like you do whenever you have to see one of your parents."

"Well, I think that's a bit of a generous description for how I prepare myself to visit Mother and Father, but I'll take it," Elijah replied with one side of his mouth up. "I think I need some blood. I'll go down and get it and when I get back, we can talk more."

"Actually, you don't need to go downstairs," Selina told him and then took out a half-full bag of blood from the fridge. "Here's one I started on this morning. You wanna have the rest? I figure it's less wasteful that way."

"All right, good idea," Elijah told her and took the blood bag out of her hands. He studied it, noticing that the blood in the bag stopped at a thin but distinct line that he'd made on the bag with permanent black marker. "You stopped at the line," he said. "I'm proud of you."

"Well, why shouldn't I stop at the line?" Selina asked. "That's what it's there for, right? To make sure I don't take too much?"

"Yes," Elijah nodded and put one arm around her. "I just want to tell you how proud I am that you're actually paying attention to what the line means and not just ignoring it. You could very well do that, you know. Especially since I'm well aware that you find some of the restrictions I place on you annoying."

"Maybe sometimes," Selina agreed and put her arms around him as he tilted his head back and let the blood from the bag trickle down his throat. "But you mean well. And though it was fun for a while, I really don't ever want to be in the dark place I was during my Lonely Heart days. I mean, it was bad."

"'It was bad'?" Elijah asked dryly. "Well, that is a massive understatement."

"Yes, yes, yes," Selina nodded. "I know. If I could go back in time and rescue everyone that I killed, I would, but I can't, so there's no use dwelling on it, is there?"

"Would you really rescue everyone?" Elijah asked, throwing the blood bag away.

"Well, if I could do it again, I would only kill my cheating boyfriends in my mind," Selina clarified. "Not in real life."

"I suppose that's better than nothing," Elijah told her, taking her in his arms and kissing her hair. "So…you want to head to bed, or eat first?"

"No, we can go to bed," Selina assured him. "But only after you answer my question about my mother. Should I accept her invitation to come visit or not?"

"Have you already?" Elijah asked. "Or did you tell her that you would wait to hear my counsel and then call her back?"

"I sort of told her that I would come already," Selina replied. "But the thing she wants to do is a few days away, so I have time to rethink this, right?"

"No, I think that if you told your mother that you would go, you should go," Elijah told her firmly. "I know that's not what you want to hear, but you know it's the right thing to do. Has she told you what she has planned to do during this little soiree?"

"No," Selina shook her head. "But I know the sort of things she likes to do, so it won't take a lot of guessing. I wish she'd let me pick an activity sometimes."

"Well, isn't there something you could suggest that you'd both enjoy?" Elijah asked. "What's that thing you're doing when you make blankets and sweaters and things? That's sewing, isn't it?"

"It's knitting," Selina corrected. "That's different."

"But it's still something that you both might like," Elijah said. "Why don't you bring that sweater you're working on for Sarah and tell her what you're doing and maybe she can help you. Four hands are always better than two."

"Yeah." Selina smiled and grabbed his hands, running them over her butt. "You want me to tell you what I wish your hands would be doing right now?"

"You don't need to tell me," Elijah replied, picking her up and carrying her to bed, putting her down on the mattress and quickly undressing her. "I'm already several steps ahead of you." She then unbuttoned his shirt and his pants, pulling him close against her. "Are you really?" She whispered against his ear.

He then buried himself deep inside her and as she ran her fingers through his hair, she closed her eyes and tried, for the moment, not to think about her mother.

"Now remember, be nice to Selina, all right?" Andrew told Amelia before he left for Matthew and Christine's on the night Selina was supposed to come visit. "She decided to come here with you and bond with you, which means that if you see anything that will give you the urge to nitpick, it's best to keep quiet about it."

"Yes, I know that," Amelia told him. "I wasn't going to nag her."

"You always say that, but with her, old habits are hard to break," Andrew replied. "Just be mindful of that."

"I will," Amelia nodded. "This is about cutting loose and having fun, not about me trying to control things."

"Oh?" Andrew asked, eyebrows raised. "And what sort of fun did you have planned for this evening?"

"Well, I thought we could, you know, sew things," Amelia replied. "And maybe do some talking about how to decorate her house. Cause it really needs work, you know."

"You mean you want to do the same sort of things that you would have done with her when you both were human a long time ago," Andrew interpreted. "The sort of things that drove her away from you in the first place."

"Well, I don't know what else to do!" Amelia cried and threw her hands up in the air. "I know I'm not hip, but that's not my fault!"

"Let her suggest what to do," Andrew said. "And before you start complaining cause it's something you'd never do, give it a chance. You might end up having fun."

The doorbell rang and he gave her a kiss before following her to the door and standing behind her. "You don't need to stand behind me," Amelia told him over her shoulder. "I can do this."

"I just want to make sure that you're both in a good place before I leave," Andrew told her firmly. "Don't you try to pretend that that's not a justifiable thing to think."

"Oh, all right," Amelia huffed. She opened the door and was taken aback to see Selina standing there with more lemon bars in one hand and what looked like a bag of yarn in the other.

"Hello!" Selina said with a smile. "Sorry if I'm late. It took the lemon bars a bit longer to cook than usual."

"No, you're fine," Amelia replied. "It was so sweet of you to bring them cause you remember what I always told you about being a good guest. But…but can I ask what the yarn was for? Did you know somehow that I wanted to sew tonight?"

"If you don't want to do that, it's fine," Andrew told Selina firmly after greeting her and hugging her too. "Your mother understands that you two don't necessarily like the same things and she was actually planning on letting you choose what you do tonight. So if you want to go out, she's all for it."

"Are you really?" Selina asked, looking at Amelia in surprise as her mother took the second batch of lemon bars from her hands. "Or is Uncle Andrew only saying that so I'll stay?"

"No, I really was planning on letting you decide what we do," Amelia told her honestly as Andrew told them goodbye and good luck and headed for Matthew's house. "So we don't need to sew for my benefit."

"Well, actually, I wasn't thinking that we would sew," Selina replied and brought the yarn into the living room, dumping out the various colors and pushing her sweater in progress for baby Sarah aside. "I was thinking I could teach you crochet. Would you like that? It's kind of like sewing."

"What is that that you just pushed aside?" Amelia asked. "Is that a project? Something you've started? Let me see it, please."

Feeling a little wary of subjecting something that she was still working on to her mother's critical eye, Selina nonetheless handed her mother the beginning of the sweater. "Just don't pull on anything or you'll make it all unravel. It's the sweater that I'm making for Daddy and Christine's baby."

"Well, I think she'll look good in it," Amelia said after a little while. "It really is exquisite craftsmanship." She chuckled a little. "From how your samplers used to look, I never would have thought you were capable of it."

"Yes, well, I tend to do better work on a sweater I like working on than a sampler I don't," Selina pointed out. Then she handed her mother an extra set of knitting needles and after Amelia chose some green yarn and a simple pattern and ate a lemon bar for nourishment, she began trying to knit a hat, which wasn't as easy as it looked.

"Damn it!" She cried and threw down the yarn in frustration as she looked at the tangled mess in her hand, all the while ignoring a tiny, successfully knitted square that was hanging off the yarn tangle cause it looked nothing like a hat. "Why is this so fucking hard?!" She then looked up at her daughter who was trying not to laugh. "What?" She asked.

"Nothing, it's just…less than an hour with me and you're already swearing like a sailor," she gave Amelia a hug. "I'm so proud of you."

"Well," Amelia replied and hugged her back. "I don't think a loss of temper is anything to be proud of and if my mother were here she'd take the whip to my back, but…I guess I'll accept that it's all right if you tell me it is."

Selina then let her go and took the yarn from her. "What are you trying to make again?" She asked, untangling the yarn and seeing that her mother had managed to knit a square of good size.

"A hat," Amelia glowered. "But as you can see, I've gotten nowhere."

"Now don't be so hard on yourself," Selina told her. "I think you're off to a good start with this square here. What do you say we call it a pot holder and then you can start a hat with some different yarn?"

"All right," Amelia smiled. "I-I suppose I could do that. Thank you, dear. Thank you very much."