"What do you mean you and your father are going on a trip and you don't know when you'll be back, Gregory?" Katherine asked. "Who's supposed to take care of Elizabeth while you're gone? I hope you weren't thinking that I would."

"Why not?" Gregory asked. "You love her. I saw. And as heartless as you can seem sometimes, I doubt you'd just let her die."

"Why are you trusting me?" Katherine asked. "I don't deserve it! Have you gone insane?"

"I'm trusting you because, as I said, I know you love Elizabeth as much as I do and I want you to prove it to me," he said.

Katherine groaned. "Why can't I just drop her off at your mom's? Your mom likes her, right?"

"Katherine, please?" Gregory asked. "This is the only time I will ever asked you to do this, so will you please just...be Elizabeth's mother for a little bit?"

Katherine shrugged. "Fine," she sighed. "But you better be right about this being the only time you're gonna leave!"

"Of course I am!" Gregory replied. "Katerina, would I lie to you?"

"You might," Katherine shot back. "I don't know!"

"Well, in this particular instance, I'm telling the truth," Gregory replied. "You can choose to believe me or not, but I'm telling you the truth! I'm gonna come back."

"Oh, just go!" Katherine snapped. "I don't need to hear you babble on anymore, so just go."

"All right," Gregory nodded, took her hand and kissed it. "Goodbye, Katerina. You know that all of Elizabeth's clothes and things are in her room, right? And her formula is in the kitchen."

She just scowled at him. "I know," she said through her teeth. "Goodbye!"

Gregory sighed, took her hand, and squeezed it. "Goodbye, Katerina," he told her briefly. He then went to Elizabeth's room and picked her up out of her crib. "I have to go on a little trip," he told her. "But I promise I'll come back. I tried to explain that to your mother, but she didn't believe me. Will you, Elizabeth? Will you believe that I'm going to come back?"

Elizabeth gave him a smile too, and he hugged her for quite awhile before taking her out to the living room and wondering if his mother would have a better reaction than Katherine when his father told her what they were doing, or if she would react just as badly.

"You and Gregory are gonna do what?" Selina asked a few days later.

"We're merely going to pretend to go over to the dark side to test Katerina's commitment to him," Elijah told her for the fifth time. She wasn't reacting any better since the first time she'd been told. "This is strictly necessary if Gregory's going to have a good life."

"It's not strictly necessary!" Selina cried. "It's insane! If I was gonna go bad for such a petty reason, you'd lock me in the basement and tell me that I wasn't allowed out until I came to my senses. I don't like you when you're bad. If I wanted to be with someone dark and creepy, I would have stayed with your brother."

"I told you that it won't be forever," Elijah promised. "And I won't let things get out of control."

"You don't know that!" Selina told him. "When you go dark, you can lose control easily without meaning to. What if your father catches you? What if he kills you? What if he kills both of you?! I'm not losing you both for such a dumb reason. I'm just not."

"I'm touched by your concern," Elijah told her. "But this is what's best. There's no other way around it."

"Yes, Mother," Gregory assured her as he threw bags and equipment into the car. "We'll be fine. We promise. It's just a test to prove whether or not Katherine is as committed to me as she should be if we're going to be a couple. You don't have to worry.

"You say that," Selina said to herself as they left. "But that doesn't mean I won't." She paused and looked Elijah in the eye. "I want you to call me every night so I can be sure you're alive." She paused. "Wait. If you're evil, you probably won't think of that. I'll call you. And you better answer. Because the second you don't, I'm gonna come down to wherever it is you are, and I'm gonna join you. Do you want that?"

"Not particularly," Elijah told her. "Although I'd be happy to have you at my side at any other time. But now, we have a plan and we need to stick to it. The slightest deviation could ruin everything."

"All right," Selina stepped back and nodded. "So, what are you going to do when your phone rings?"

"Answer it," Elijah sighed.

"Good," Selina told him. "And all you have to do is say, 'Yes, Selina, we're alive'. Then, I'll say 'All right, thank you', and hang up. That's not too hard for you to deal with, is it?"

"No," Elijah shook his head. "I guess not." He put the last bag in and then he and Gregory got in the car. "Goodbye," Elijah told Selina. "We're going to come back. I promise."

"I believe you!" Selina called as the car backed out of the driveway. "Good luck!"

"So," Laura asked Selina the next day after Gregory and Elijah had been gone for a little while. "What's Dad up to now?"

"Something incredibly stupid that might get him immobilized," Selina said. "Your brother too. If that happens, I give you permission to move in with Edward."

"Well, thanks," Edward told Selina. "Just what is he doing now?"

"Gregory is involved with Dad's ex-girlfriend," Laura told him. "He's been in love with her since we were kids, although I have no idea why."

"Ah," Edward grinned. "You hate her. Is she some sort of intellectual or something?"

When they heard that, both Laura and Selina burst out laughing. "I wouldn't call her an intellectual," Laura said. "I doubt she's ever opened a book in her life."

"Yeah," Selina said darkly. "She mainly gets through life by exploiting men she tricks into falling in love with her."

"And now you know why I hate her," Laura said. "Cause I don't want my brother to be another notch on her bedpost."

"Look at you, caring about people!" Edward said in amazement, giving her a hug. "That's so nice!"

"Yeah, well," Laura replied, leaning her head against Edward's shoulder. "He's my brother."

Just then, there was a knock at the front door. "Huh," Selina said. "I wonder who that is?" She went to open the door and found Katherine on the other side, holding a carrier with Elizabeth in it

"Hi," Katherine said. "I heard Elijah left you too, and I wondered-"

"You wondered if you could leave Elizabeth here while you went out and partied?" Selina interrupted. "I figured you would. Give me her and her things and you can be on your way, no longer bogged down by the giant burden your daughter is." She held her hand out, waiting for Katherine to give her the carrier.

But Katherine stayed firm. "Actually," she said, "I was thinking of taking care of Elizabeth myself. I just came here for the company. Can we come in, or not?"

"Sure," Selina said, feeling confused. "Come in. Did you just seriously say you're going to take care of Elizabeth while Gregory is gone?"

"Yeah," Katherine nodded. "My first thought was to drop her off with you until he got back, but then I sort of got into the whole 'taking care of a child' thing and I wanna stick it out. It's what Gregory wants." She paused to smirk at Selina, who still seemed confused. "That's not a problem, is it?"

"No," Selina shook her head. "If it's what Gregory wants, you should do it."

"Thank you," Katherine replied and stepped inside.

"Do you need some help with all that stuff?" Selina asked. "I can put some of it in her room if you'd like."

"All right," Katherine replied, and dumped the entire mountain of things on Selina all at once. She fell to the ground under the weight of it, which caused Katherine to chuckle. "Have fun taking that to her room," she said.

Selina got up from the floor, her eyes narrowed, but said nothing as she made several trips taking Elizabeth's things to her room.

"Not a light packer, is she?" Selina panted when she came back for the last time.

"Well, I didn't know what to pack, since Gregory didn't exactly specify how long he'd be gone, so I decided to bring everything. Just to be safe," Katherine replied. "You know what that's like, right?"

"Yes," Selina sighed. "As much as I would like to be angry and think you brought all that on purpose just to make me look like an idiot, I can't deny small children have a lot of stuff."

"Exactly!" Katherine replied. "I brought it all cause she needed it. The fact that you looked absolutely ridiculous carrying everything was just an added bonus!"

"What are you doing here?" Laura asked, coming in and facing Katherine. "Nobody invited you!"

"Remember what we said about being nice to people?" Edward asked, coming up behind her. "Let's just keep going with that, shall we?"

"Listen to your boyfriend, Laura," Katherine told her. "It wouldn't hurt you to learn some manners."

Edward strode over to Katherine and held out his hand. "Hello," he said. "I'm Edward. You'll have to excuse Laura. She's having a bad day."

"No, she's not," Katherine replied, shaking Edward's hand. "She's always been like that around me, and I have no idea why. All I've ever done is be polite."

"Yeah, right!" Laura said. "You tricked Gregory into falling in love with you and now you're gonna dump him just like you've dumped every other man you've been with! You can't treat my brother that way. You're scum."

"That's not the worst thing I've ever been called," Katherine replied. "And you do realize your brother is an adult now, right? If he wants to be in love with me, that's his choice, even if you think it's a stupid one, so how about you mind your own business and leave me alone?"

"Not until you let my brother go," Laura said.

"That's not going to happen," Katherine told her. "How many ways are there to say he wants to be with me? I admit I've compelled a lot of men over the years and done things I shouldn't have, but I can't mess with Gregory that way. Every decision he makes is his alone. I have nothing to do with it."

"Laura," Edward said firmly, "Let this go, please. We're aware that you love your brother and just want to stick up for him. But really, you're beating a dead horse when your rage could be directed at so many other things."

"But I don't want to direct my rage at other things!" Laura yelled as Edward pulled her away. "I want to direct my rage at her!"

"Just come with me," Edward told her. "We'll go away and you can think about other, happier things." He herded a still-protesting Laura out of Katherine's sight while mumbling apologies at a volume Katherine could hear.

"Well," she said and cuddled Elizabeth. "At least we know there's one nice person in this house."

"Okay," Gregory said to Elijah as they parked in the middle of some woods were a lot of hikers and campers frequented. "Just how exactly do you think we can prove Katherine's commitment to me?"

"Well, it's like I told your mother," Elijah replied as the moon rose behind him. "We completely let ourselves go, leave a trail of bodies behind us, my father comes running, and when Katerina begs him to spare your life because she and your child need you too much, then we'll know that her feelings are genuine."

"Have you completely lost your mind, Father?" Gregory asked, his eyes wide with shock. "When you told me we were going to do something to test Katherine's commitment to me, I didn't think that risking our lives was the sort of thing you had in mind. If you're only doing this because of an urge to go dark, you could have just asked Mother. She probably would have joined you without this whole charade."

"It's not an urge to go dark," Elijah replied. "I won't take pleasure in the lives I end, but sometimes, people have to die for the sake of the greater good, and I consider your happiness more important than the lives of humans I'll never know personally."

"Well, thank you," Gregory said dryly. "I'm honored. But I won't do it. You can kill all the people you want, but you'll do it alone."

"That defeats the point of the whole plan, though," Elijah replied. "Katerina won't stand up to your grandfather to save me! You have to join me."

"Can you think of no other non-violent way to test Katherine's commitment?" Gregory asked. "I'm beginning to think Mother was right when she said this plan was insane."

"Do you honestly think I would suggest a plan like this if I thought it was really going to have terrible, irreversible consequences?" Elijah asked. "We'll be fine!"

"You seem to have confidence that Katherine will rescue me," Gregory said. "Why don't we go back home, and have me ask her something like, 'If I were to kill a bunch of people and then have the possibility of being eternally immobilized hanging over my head, would you save me, Katherine? Or not?' Isn't that enough?" Gregory asked.

"No!" Elijah replied. "There wouldn't be any real feeling in her answer, even if she did say 'Yes'. Nothing brings out people's feelings like a life or death situation."

Gregory groaned as he realized Elijah wouldn't be distracted from the plan. He got out his phone and started to dial Selina's number, but Elijah snatched it away. "You're calling your mother, aren't you?" He asked.

"I think that you knew I was," Gregory replied. "Otherwise you wouldn't have taken my phone away."

Elijah frowned deeply and grabbed a passerby, sinking his fangs into the man's neck.

"Father!" Gregory said in surprise as he watched Elijah drain life from the man and then toss him away like a used tissue. He eyed Gregory, his mouth covered in blood, and grinned. "Your turn, my boy," he said, leaving and coming back with a struggling, terrified woman in shorts and a pink tank top. "Go ahead. Take a bite. You've done it before."

Gregory felt ill, but took the woman from Elijah anyway. But he didn't bite her neck. He bit her wrist so he could avoid looking into her eyes and drank and drank and drank, and then did the same with the other wrist. Finally, she was limp and he let her drop to the ground.

"Was she good?" Elijah asked.

"Yes," Gregory nodded. "I want more!"

Together, father and and son spent a period of seven days on a killing spree and on the morning of the seventh day, as the sun came up, they found themselves waking up on either side of a large pile of dead bodies.

"That's the great thing about being in the woods like this," Elijah said as Gregory sat up. "An endless supply of people. There's no chance of starving."

Suddenly, they heard a noise in the bushes, and then, Mikael appeared. "Well, well, well," he said. "Look what we have here."

"Hello, Father," Elijah replied. "We wondered when you were going to show up. It took you long enough to get here."

"Silence!" Mikael roared. "I've killed many unruly vampires in my time, but never did I think I would have to kill my own son and grandson. I never thought the two of you would be capable of such an atrocity."

"Well," Elijah chuckled, "you learn something every day, don't you?"

"Hey," Gregory added, "If you're gonna kill us, can we at least make phone calls to tell people goodbye?"

"Fine," Mikael replied. "Although if you ask me, it's the very people you're calling that made you end up like this in the first place."

Gregory dug his phone out of his pocket and dialed Katherine's number. "Katerina," he said when she answered. "I'm so glad you answered the phone!"

"You know, I didn't say you need to call me while you're away," Katherine told him. "That was your mother. In fact, Selina's packing up to head to the car this minute cause you haven't answered her calls in a couple of days."

"Well, you should come with her too, and bring Elizabeth," Gregory said. "That way, you'll both get to say goodbye to me."

"What?!" Katherine yelled. "Gregory, what are you talking about?"

Gregory chuckled. "Father and I went on a killing spree, Katerina. We racked up a pile of bodies and Grandfather found out. Now he's says we're both gonna die, so if you want to come have a last look at me, you'd better do it quick. We're in the woods about five miles from our house, you know, where all the hiking trails and camp sites are." He hung up, and told Mikael, "They're both gonna come to say goodbye. Can we have a stay of execution until they get here?"

Mikael sighed. "I hate delays," he said. "But I suppose, as a favor to family, I will actually let them say goodbye to you. Unless you're lying to me and they really aren't coming."

"No, they are!" Gregory insisted. "Katerina would never give up the chance to say goodbye to me and let me die alone."

"They have twenty minutes," Mikael said. "Then it will be too late."

Selina and Katherine reached the woods in the nick of time. They ran into the clearing where Elijah and Gregory were situated, led by the overpowering smell of the bodies. "Wait!" Katherine said. "Stop! Don't do this!"

"Yeah," Selina added. "Don't you dare hurt either of them!"

"What does it matter?" Gregory asked as Katherine handed Elizabeth to Selina and came to kneel next to him. "You're never gonna love me anyway. I might as well die."

"Don't you dare!" Katherine said. "I can raise Elizabeth by myself if I have to, but that's not what I want. She needs you too much for you to just throw your life away like this."

"Well, I knew that," Gregory replied. "And what about you, Katerina? Do you need me?"

Katherine hesitated, and Mikael brought down the dagger that he had poised over Gregory's body. He'd decided to dagger Gregory first because it was his betrayal that hurt the worst and Mikael just wanted to get the shame out of the way. Then, he'd finish off Elijah. Katherine watched the dagger shoot down, but just before it reached Gregory's body, she threw herself over the spot where it would have landed. "No!" She cried. "You can't kill him!"

"Why?" Mikael asked.

"Because-" Katherine started to say. "Because-"

"Because what, my dear?" Mikael asked.

"Because I love him, okay?" Katherine finally got out. "And he loves me! And if you kill him, I'll just go back to being the bitter, lonely, and only caring about myself. I don't want that. I want him. I need him. Elizabeth and I both do. Please, don't hurt him."

"Yeah," Selina replied. "Elijah and Gregory are sorry for what they did. Can't you give them a break this once? This is like the one crazy thing they've both done. Please don't kill my husband, or my son. Save all your rage for someone who really deserves it. I'm sure there are people like that out there."

Mikael, who was not just playing the part of willing participant in Gregory and Elijah's scheme about Katherine, scowled and stepped away. "I suppose I can look the other way this once, for my family. But if the two of them do anything like this again, I won't hesitate." He skulked off and Katherine and Selina, who still was holding Elizabeth, stared at their men.

"I've never wanted to punch you so hard in my entire life!" Selina told Elijah. "Didn't I tell you that this stupid plan of yours would get the two of you killed?"

"But it worked, though!" Elijah said.

"What plan?" Katherine asked Gregory.

"Well," he grinned and stroked her hair. "The reason why we did this was to test you. Father wanted to make sure you were as committed to me and Elizabeth as we were to you. And you are. We all heard it. You can't take it back."

"Well, that was very underhanded!" Katherine replied. But she hugged him anyway. "If you just would have asked me how I felt, I would have told you."

"I don't think you would have," Gregory replied. "You're not exactly open with your feelings."

"Well, I can't go through watching you nearly be killed again," Katherine sighed. "So I guess, even though it terrifies me, I guess I have no choice but to be more open and honest about my feelings from now on."