"Are you okay?" Lucy asked Damon. "Are you gonna answer my question?"

"What question?" Damon asked, laughing uneasily.

"The question about how you slept last night," Lucy said. "Did you sleep okay?"

"Oh, yeah," Damon said. "I slept fine."

Lucy stood up from her chair and strode toward him. "You mean you didn't have any strange dreams at all?"

Damon swallowed as she closed in on him. "No...just the usual. Which I will thank you not to interrupt, seeing as how it's none of your business."

"What makes you think I had anything to do with it?" Lucy asked. "Maybe your subconscious is telling you that you're starting to like Mom less and me more."

"Aha!" Damon said. "You did have something to do with last night. You wouldn't have any idea that I usually have dreams about your mother unless you were in my head."

"Or it could be that I just have eyes," Lucy said. "I've only watched you shamelessly try and flirt with her for as long as I can remember." She put her hands on her hips. "You really should be ashamed of yourself, you know."

Damon smirked at her. "Oh, please. I refuse to be lectured on my morals by Lolita."

"I'm with her on this one," Joshua said. "You really need to let Mother go, Father."

Lucy turned. "Well, thank you," she said to Joshua. "I don't mind help from an unexpected quater."

"Now calm now a minute," Joshua said at once. "I'm not saying I side with you either."

"Well, you have to side with somebody," Lucy said. "If you want him to lay off of Mom, then who's left?"

"Go find a boy your own age," Joshua said gently. "At school. You'll be much happier if you do, I promise."

Lucy sighed. "I doubt it, but I'll give it a shot." She gave Damon a look. "But that doesn't necessarily mean I'm giving up on you though. "Remember that."

"Oh, Lucy," Damon said, "I don't think you'd make it easy for me to forget." He sobered. "At all."

"Do you think I'm a horrible mother?" Selina asked Elijah.

He watched her cradling Gregory and pushed her hair out of her eyes. "Of course not," he said. "Don't be silly. Why would you even think that?"

"Well, Lucy's been gone for months and I just realized I haven't even called to check on her once," Selina said. "For god's sake, she's only six years old! I'm right near negligent! And Roxie went off and left when she was six and did I care? No! My god, what is wrong with me?"

"Nothing," Elijah said calmly. "And it's not like you can't go and call Lucy right now. In fact, it's probably the perfect time. You can see if she's signed up for school all right, and if she's not, you can go take care of that yourself. And don't feel bad about Roxie. You do all you can for her. Anything else that's happened isn't your fault."

"I guess," Selina said. She looked down at Gregory. "I want Gregory to grow up all right," she said. "I want him to be as normal as he possibly can be." Gregory looked at her for a moment, then spit up all over his clothes.

"I'll take him," Elijah said. "You call Lucy. It'll make you feel better."

Damon picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Damon, it's Selina," the voice said on the other end of the line. "I know we haven't talked in awhile. How are you?"

"I'm good," Damon said. "Can't complain."

"How's Sam?"

"He's great. He misses you a lot but I explained that you haven't had a lot of time to stop by what with having to take care of the new baby and everything."

"But that's no excuse," Selina said. "I should stop by soon. When would be a good time?"

"No time soon," Damon said, trying to stay calm. "Sam and Lucy have gone on a trip with Stefan and Anna and they won't be back for awhile."

"Really?" Selina asked. "I hope that won't get in the way of them starting school. It won't, will it?"

"No," Damon said. "It won't. They'll get to school all right. Trust me. You just relax and keep your mind on raising that new baby of yours."

"All right," Selina said. "Thanks for taking care of things, Damon. It's nice to have someone to count on."

"Oh, you're welcome," Damon said, his heart sinking a little. "I'm glad to help."

"Who were you talking to?" Sam asked, coming down the stairs. Damon turned and started a little. It was scary how much teenage Sam resembled him.

"No one you'd be interesed in," Damon said after a moment. "Just a sales person."

Sam nodded and sat down at the kitchen table. "When are we gonna call Mom?" He said. "I want to see her."

"I know you do," Damon said. "But that can't happen until either Lenora changes you back to the age you're supposed to be or we think up a cunningly plausible excuse as to why you've suddenly aged ten years. If either of those things happen, let me know."

"So is Lucy all right?" Elijah asked when Selina came back. "Did you get to talk to her?"

Selina shook her head. "No. Damon said she was out on a trip with Stefan and won't be back for a while. But he promised that everything concerning her, Sam and school was taken care of."

"Good," Elijah said. "I hope we can talk to her later, though. I've really missed her."

A week later, Lucy found herself waking up in time for her first day of school. "Are you nervous?" Mimi asked.

Lucy shook her head. "No. I'm ready! I can't wait to start learning stuff."

Mimi smiled. "What a refreshing thing to hear from a girl your age."

Lucy nodded. "I know, right? Most girls my age only think about how to get a boy, but not me! I'm all about learning."

"Oh, not all the time, I hope," Mimi said. "Take some time to be a kid too. Moderation is the key in everything."

"I thought that was only about food," Lucy said.

"It's good advice that can pertain to a lot of things," Mimi said. She looked at the clock. "Almost time for you to go. I can drive you if you'd like."

Lucy nodded. "All right. Thank you."

"Well, look who's here," Sam said when he found Lucy outside the school building. "Lucy, with her books and her pencils and her new backpack. How did you get here?"

"I got a ride," Lucy said. "What about you? Did you steal your dad's car or something?"

Sam shook his head. "I didn't have to steal it. I drove it here because I have a little thing called a driver's license and you don't!"

"I could if I wanted to," Lucy said. "Or I could just take someone's car and drive it whenever I wanted."

"What if a policeman caught up to you?" Sam asked. "What would you do then?"

"I would compel them to go away," Lucy said.

Sam burst out laughing. "Oh, I just bet you wouldn't!" He looked at her high necked shirt that was buttoned to the top. "You can't even stand to have your top button unbuttoned. You sure as hell wouldn't commit a crime! Even a small one!"

"I could too!" Lucy said. "And it would make me legendary, let me tell you that!"

"I'll believe that when I see it," Sam said.

She followed him inside the school building and went to the office to get her schedule and locker assignment.

"Who is this?" asked a tall man with small, water eyes, a large nose and an even larger midsection asked the woman at the office reception desk.

"This is Lucy Mikaelson," she said. "She's new."

He held out his hand and shook Lucy's firmly. "I'm Mr. Adams, Lucy. I'm the principal. I hope your time here with us will be productive for you."

Lucy nodded. "Oh, yes it will, sir. I'm pleased to meet you."

He left and she looked down at her schedule. "I have no idea where any of these rooms are," she said. "Is 311A far from here?"

"I could take you," a male voice said. "I have class in that room too." Lucy looked up and saw a boy striding toward her. Although he was no Damon, he was good-looking in his own way, with light eyes and dark hair similar to Damon's and jeans that frayed at the knees. He wore a KISS t-shirt under a jacket.

"Hi," she said. "Thanks for doing this."

"It's no problem," he said. "I'm Jason, by the way. Did I hear that your name is Lucy?"

"Yeah," Lucy nodded. "I just started today."

"I figured that," he said. "I would have noticed if you were here before now. I could take your books for you if you want. They look heavy and you seem to have an awful lot of them."

"I like learning!" Lucy said. Her tone was nearing defensive.

"I don't have a problem with that," he said. "But you won't need a lot of books for your class in 311A. It's painting with Mr. Hensley. He's a good guy."

"Painting?" Lucy said. "I love painting!"

"Good," Jason said. "And just so you won't feel lonely, I'll help you set up your easel next to mine."

"Thanks," Lucy said. "That would be great."

"Thanks for coming so quickly," Damon said when Stefan strode into the house that day around lunch time. "I could use the company."

Stefan nodded. "I figured you'd be lonely without Lucy around."

"Why would you say that?" Damon asked. "Lucy has nothing to do with anything! I have other things that I think about besides Lucy, okay? Can we just talk about something else?"

"Okay, okay!" Stefan said, sitting down. "What's the matter with you?"

"I need a drink," Damon said. "Do you want one?"

"Sure," Stefan said. "I've been a bit lonely myself, actually. Anna decided to go stay with her mother since her brother got killed."

"I'm sorry," Damon said. They sat in silence for a moment.

"What do you say we get out and walk around?" Stefan said. "Get some fresh air and all that? I could use some."

"Well all right," Damon said. They drove to a small restaurant downtown and saw that there was one table with empty seats. There was one girl at the table. She had blonde hair and her face was buried in a book. Stefan walked over to the table and tapped on it lightly. "Excuse me," he said. "Do you mind if we sit here?"

The girl put her book down and looked at them through glasses with tortoise shell frames. "Sure," she said. "Have a seat. I don't mind."

"No," Damon said. "We don't have to." He looked at Stefan. "We have to go somewhere else."

"Why?" Stefan asked. "This is fine. She said it was okay for us to have a seat!"

"We can't sit here because that's Lucy," Damon whispered, pointing at the girl. "I swear!"

Stefan smirked. "No, it isn't! Lucy's six years old! Have you completely lost your mind?"

Lucy looked back and forth between them. "What's going on? Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," Stefan said. "It's fine. My brother here just thinks you remind him of someone. A someone who happens to be six years old."

She grinned. "I have been told I look young for my age, but never that young!"

Just then, Stefan's phone rang. He picked it up. "Hello? Nick, yes, hi! Damon and I are at a place downtown having a conversation with a very charming young lady. Do you want to join us? All right. It's that place across from the Pizza Hut on West 3rd Street. Yeah, the one with the picture of the American flag in the window. See you in a few minutes." As soon as he put his phone down, Damon stood up. "I'm gonna go."

"I'm sorry," Lucy said. "I hope you're not going because of me." Damon started to walk away and she followed him. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "Let me explain, would you?"

"How can you explain making me feel like a complete idiot?" Damon asked.

Lucy sighed. "I'm sorry, okay? I promise I'll tell everyone the truth, but not now, all right? It's not the right time."

"Well, with your dad coming, are you gonna go somewhere else, or are you gonna take a risk and stay?" Damon asked.

Lucy shrugged. "Well, I don't see what the risk would be. No one knows who I really am except you. This could be fun. Again, I'm sorry. I'll stop by your house later and tell you how my day went."

Damon just lookd at her, shook his head and walked off. Then, Lucy turned to head back to the table where Stefan sat alone. "I'm really sorry if I made your friend uncomfortable," she said to Stefan. "Sometimes, I just have that effect on people."

"Oh, don't blame yourself," Stefan said. "He's just like that sometimes." Stefan looked up then and waved. "Speaking of friends of mine, here comes another one."

It was then that her father came and sat down directly across from her. "Hello," he said.

"Hi," Lucy said, trying keep herself calm and not blurt out anything she might regret. "You've probably figured this out, but I'm the very charming young lady your friend mentioned on the phone."

Klaus took Lucy's hand and kissed it and then looked over at Stefan. "You said she was charming, but you didn't say she was pretty! How could you forget to mention that?"

"What about Caroline?" Stefan asked. "I thought you were with her! You moved Selina's uncle into your house just so Alistair would stop being on your back for the fact that you live unchaperoned with a woman you aren't married to."

"As I told Alistair," Klaus said patiently, "Caroline and I are living together at this point because she could no longer stand living with Selina's mother. Now whether or not it evolves into something greater than that is yet to be seen. Until then, we have both decided that we will do as we please when it comes to our relationships."

"Am I your type?" Lucy asked. "Do you even have one?"

Klaus grinned at her. "Funny you should ask me that. In fact, you remind me of my last wife. She's a very pretty woman, just like you. It's a shame we couldn't stay together though. Lucky for her, she lives with my brother now."

He heard Stefan snort and then start coughing. "Are you all right?" He asked him.

"Yeah," Stefan nodded. "I'm fine." He was smirking.

"Are you sure?" Klaus asked.

"Yeah," Stefan nodded. "I am."

It was then that Lucy put her book into her book bag and stood up. "It's been lovely chatting with both of you, but I have to leave now if I'm going to get back to class on time."

"Before you go, you have to promise me one thing," Klaus said. "You have to promise me we'll see each other again."

"Oh, I can promise that," Lucy said. "I can definitely promise we'll see each other again."

After school, instead of going straight back to Mimi's, Lucy walked to the park, because even if it was a little chilly, the sun was out and it was nice. She saw her mother sitting on a bench next to her brother who was cozy in his stroller and she went to sit next to them. "Do you mind?" She asked.

"No," Selina said. "Go ahead."

Lucy sat down and looked over at Gregory. "He looks adorable."

Selina grinned. "Thank you. My youngest. Had him about a month ago."

"Your youngest?" Lucy asked. "Meaning you have others?"

"Yeah," Selina nodded. "I have others. But I don't think I've done well with them."

"Why do you think that?" Lucy asked.

"Well, the ones I'm worried about are my daughters. The first one left home after a fight with her father and the second one I sent away during my pregnancy. I can get a little crazy when I'm pregnant and Lucy is so smart I just didn't want to spoil her chances of being all that she could be."

"But that's not screwing up," Lucy said. "You were good to your daughter when you sent her away so that she could have a better learning environment, trust me."

Selina sighed. "And then I forgot to call her and check up on her. I hope she doesn't think I don't care about her. Because I do."

Lucy sighed. "I think she knows that you care about her if she knows you sent her away so she could concentrate better at school. And for heaven's sake, you've got a little baby! They take up lots of time! I bet she understands that."

"You think?" Selina asked.

"I don't think," Lucy said. "I know. Stop being so hard on yourself. You'll be happier that way."

Selina nodded. "Thank you," she said. "Thanks for listening to me ramble when you didn't have to."

"Oh, it's my pleasure," Lucy said. "Really."

"Who are you?" Damon asked when he opened the door a few months later. The guy on the other side had dark hair and light eyes and looked neat even though he was wearing jeans, a white t-shirt and a leather jacket.

"I'm Jason," he said. "I'm here to see Lucy."

"Oh, the hell you are!" Damon said. "What for?"

"We're studying together," Lucy said, suddenly appearing out of nowhere. "I'm tutoring Jason in history. And in exchange, he's gonna tutor me in a couple of things, if you know what I mean."

Jason's lip quirked. Damon felt himself tense.

"She means artistic stuff," Jason said. "That's all."

"You want to come in?" Lucy asked Jason. "I made us lemonade and cookies just like I promised I would if you got a good grade on the last test."

"Cool," Jason said. "Where did you want to study?"

"The kitchen's a good place," Damon said. "It's really big, it's got a table to put all your books and papers on..."

"And it doesn't have a door that we can close to do nefarious business." Lucy giggled. "Damon relax, would you? You're getting to be as bad as my dad!"

"Oh, I don't think so!" Damon said. "Your dad would be waaay worse!"

After Lucy gave Jason his first study questions, she went to the kitchen to get the refreshments and found that Damon had already scarfed down most of them. "Those cookies were not for you!" she scolded. "They were for Jason and me!"

Damon shook his head. "He doesn't deserve your cookies or your lemonade or your attention or anything. He's a bad guy and I want him out of this house!"

Lucy looked at him, her lips thin. "Well, fine," she said. "I thought I was being considerate when I brought him here to introduce him to you, but obviously, you don't want to be mature about this. You want act like a big baby instead. If you want us out, we'll leave and go to Mimi's!" She left the kitchen and went back to the room where Jason was.

"Who is that guy?" Jason asked. "He seems like a bit of a pill."

"It's hard to explain," Lucy said. "The closest explanation would be that he's kind of like my dad, but that's not quite accurate. Anyway, I have a feeling that if we want to get any studying done, we'll have to go back to Mimi's."

"Really?" Jason asked brightly.

"Yeah," Lucy said. "And I give you permission to put your hand on my butt when we leave."

"I would ask why," Jason said. "Is there something going on between you and him?"

"No," Lucy said. "I told you he was like my dad, remember? Now, we're losing valuable study time. Let's get to Mimi's!"

They left the room and made their way toward the door, and just as Damon poked his crumb covered face out of the kitchen, Jason smoothly placed his hand on Lucy's bottom just long enough for Damon to see it. Lucy grinned at Damon's horrified expression. "Good night," she said, grinning at Damon, who was turning purple. "We're going to Mimi's where she lets us close the door to study. Don't wait up for me."

Once she and Jason were out the door, Jason removed his hand. "How was that?" He asked. "Did I do all right?"

"Well, yeah!" Lucy said. "Didn't you see the look on his face?" She sighed. "I'm sorry," she said. "I don't mean to put you in the middle of what's going on with Damon and me. You don't deserve that."

"Oh, it's all right," Jason said because he didn't know what else to say. "Do you think that Mimi will make us dinner again when she sees I'm studying with you?"

"I bet she will," Lucy nodded. "She likes doing it though. It's not just due to your being there. Although being with you is nice."

"'We're going to Mimi's, where she lets us close the door to study..." Damon took one last gulp from his beer bottle, growled and threw it on the floor. "Study my ass," he grumbled. "I bet the only studying he's doing is of her!" He could just picture it..

Lucy walked into the bedroom and shut the door behind her. Jason was already sitting on the bed. "So are we really going to study?" He asked. "Do we have to?"

"No," Lucy said. "You know the material well enough that I don't think we need to take any more time looking it over. And I think you deserve a reward for that."

"What kind of a reward?" Jason asked, looking intrigued.

"Well, remember earlier today when I let you put your hand on my butt?" Lucy's eyes twinkled. "Well, that was just the beginning. I've decided to let you put your hands wherever you want."

She slowly began to strip and once she was in her panties, she put music on and began dancing to it, her dance relying heavily on hip movements and the fact that her chest bounced up and down.

Jason was beginning to feel very strange. He had the impulse to pick Lucy up, put her on the bed and just kiss her until neither of them could breathe. He stood up and backed her up against the wall, his fingers fumbling to get off her bra, when all of a sudden, he was interrupted by shouts coming from the hallway. One set of shouts sounded like Mimi's. The other was male and very angry.

Just then, the bedroom door burst open and Jason found himself being yanked by his collar and pulled away from Lucy, his body tossed casually into the hallway as the door slammed behind it.

"Excuse me!" Lucy said when she realized it was Damon who had interrupted her. "Do you mind? We were busy!"

"You wanna be busy?" Damon told her. "If you're gonna be busy, the only person you will be busy with is me, do you understand?" She nodded and he pulled her panties down. She kicked them aside and kissed him, and as they kissed, he unzipped his pants and picked her up, making love to her right against the bedroom wall.

"You should be ashamed of yourself," Damon said when he stormed into Mimi's the next morning. "It's bad enough that you invaded my dreams once. Did you have to do it again?"

"What are you talking about?" Lucy asked. "Are you talking about last night? I didn't do anything to you last night." She grinned. "Did you have dreams about me? Were they hot? Was I naked? Tell me, tell me, tell me!"

"You had to have done it!" Damon said. "Because I know myself, and I know that I would never think about you and I doing stuff like we did in the dream."

"Or like we did the first time I came back from Mimi's?" Lucy asked. "You know, Freud says that dreams are manifestations of subconscious sexual desires. In a lot of cases, the theory is bullshit, but in your case," Lucy kissed him deeply, running a hand under his shirt. When she pulled away, she resumed talking. "In your case, he might be right."