"Why did we even agree to have this dinner party if you're not gonna be open-minded about everyone being here?"

"I don't know! It's not like it was my idea! You want to make friends with Renee, go ahead and do it. But I can't. I can't watch you let people come in and out of our house who endanger our children while you just sit back and don't give a rat's ass. Give everyone my apologies, but I'm taking the twins and going to Grandma and Grandpa's until I figure out what to do next!" What had begun as a replay of Victoria's rant to him about the twins at the dinner party then changed to something far more horrible. The image of her in Kai's mind began to twist and shift, and soon he found himself looking at his mother.

"Figures you would end up like this, Malachai," she spat. "You start out so well, you put up a good front, but eventually the people realize just how horrible you really are and leave. Good for her. I think I like her much better now."

"Shut up!" Kai yelled. "You don't know anything! I can get her back. You'll see!"

"Good luck, you'll need it!" Edele called after him savagely, her loud, insane laughter echoing around him until he finally managed to jolt himself out of sleep.

"It's just a dream," he told himself as he looked around in the darkness. "That's all it is. Just thoughts in your head. Your mother is dead and the world is a better place because of it." He sighed. "But fuck Victoria anyway. I don't need her. In fact, now that she's gone, I can go back to reaching my full potential."

The thought cheered him up immensely, and as he went to get the paper, he saw his happy neighbors strolling around the cul-du-sac, some arm in arm or kissing one another affectionately. The sight of them being happy when he wasn't made him scoff and as Ginger the dog came and rubbed his ankle affectionately with her head, he stepped away from the door and put her under one arm while with his other hand, he shot out magic so powerful that it emitted light and force that made the entire neighborhood look like it had been hit by an atomic bomb. Even Kai's house itself was in ruins, although he and Ginger were safe. (Malachai was off at Renee's so he was safe too.) Kai then left the house and looked it over.

"Well, isn't this a mess?" He said with a chuckle as he stared at the piles of rubble, brick, and wood all around him and listened to the cries of the wounded and dying. "I wonder what happened here?" He walked around and every time he found someone who was alive, he set them alight, and soon, the neighborhood was silent.

"Look at this, Ginger," Kai said as he stroked the dog. "We have no place to live. We might as well tell Victoria. It would be polite of us, wouldn't it?" He grabbed some dead, burned flowers out of someone's garden, then zapped himself to Kol and Margot's and knocked, waiting for someone to come answer the door.


"Your husband is at the door," Kol told Victoria as he stared out the window. "Should I answer it and tell him to go away?"

"No, you don't have to do that," Victoria told him. "I'm a big girl; I can handle one psychotic husband."

"You don't understand," Kol told her. "I want to answer the door and tell that son of a bitch to go away!"

"I'll tell you what," Victoria said. "If he comes back again after this, you can do whatever you want, all right? Is that fair?"

"I guess," Kol huffed and went to sit next to Margot.

Victoria opened the door and found herself face to face with her husband, who shoved the bouquet of dead flowers at her. "These are lovely," she said sarcastically and then threw them back in his face. "What the hell is wrong with you? I'm not taking you back, if that's what you've come over here thinking. And I'm not giving back either of the kids, either!"

"Oh, will you relax?" Kai told her. "That's not what I came here for. I came to tell you that there was an accident at our house this morning, so after you leave here, you're gonna have to find a new place to live."

"What do you mean?" Victoria asked, freezing. "What have you done?"

"Well, after you left, I realized something," he said as he pushed her aside and made his way into the house. "I realized that maybe you being gone is more of a blessing than I thought; now that you're no longer controlling everything I do, I can go back to being myself. To reveling in my true potential. Thanks for that. I owe you one, gorgeous. I couldn't stand up to my mother, but I can definitely stand up to you."

"How many people did you kill?" Victoria asked.

"I don't know," Kai chuckled. "The whole neighborhood is blown to pieces. Bodies everywhere! It'll probably be on the news. Think about me when you watch it." He then grabbed her and gave her one last kiss and a spank on the bottom before he left to go somewhere else.

"Oh, that disgusting," Victoria spat and scrubbed her mouth off with the back of her hand. "I can't believe I ever liked him!"

"Would this be a bad time for me to say 'I told you so'?" Kol asked.

"Yes," Margot replied. "There's never a good time for that. Victoria gets the point. Although I do think it's odd that he changed so quickly. He genuinely seemed better when you were with him, sweetie."

"Well, it was all a lie to get me to love him and let him get in my pants, wasn't it?" Victoria replied bitterly. "He wasn't someone I should have liked. He was a co-dependent psychopath with mommy issues. And I think it will be better for all of us if Finn and Molly are never exposed to him again."

"I know you won't like hearing this, but may I play devil's advocate for a moment?" Margot asked.

"Sure," Victoria nodded. "Why not?"

"I think you should let him see the twins," Margot said.

"What? Why?" Victoria cried. "You heard him! He just blew up our whole fucking neighborhood!"

"You disappointed him and now he's acting out," Margot told her calmly. "And did you hear that crack he made about his mother? Maybe he feels like you've turned into her by not trusting him with the kids. Because you don't, right? Admit it."

"At this dinner party we had, his uncle's girlfriend let Molly drink alcohol!" Victoria cried. "Am I just supposed to condone that?"

"Well, no," Margot agreed. "But think about what you said: It was Malachai's girlfriend who committed the misstep, not Kai himself. Now if it was Kai that was giving the children alcohol, that would be one thing, but it wasn't. Don't you think you're being too hard on him? I mean, I understand worrying about your children's welfare cause they're just babies, but you can't expect Kai to keep tabs on everyone and make sure they stay on the straight and narrow."

Victoria sighed. "I suppose you're right," she said and ran her fingers through her hair, then went to pick up Finn, who was in Kol's lap. "I was too hard on him. I overreacted. I should apologize."

"And then you're going to go back to him?" Margot asked.

"No," Victoria shook her head. "I would have if he hadn't blown up our neighborhood, but since he did that, he exchanged one problem for another." She quickly called Kai's number and hoped his phone hadn't blown up too.

"Yes?" Kai said a few seconds later. "What is it that you want? Are you calling to apologize for treating me as unfairly as my mother did?"

"About the children and the stuff that happened at the dinner party, yes," Victoria told him. "I was too hard on you for something that I shouldn't have expected you to have control over and I'm sorry."

"Well, thanks," Kai said in surprise. "That's very big of you."

"However," Victoria continued. "That whole 'blowing up the neighborhood' thing canceled out the stuff I had to apologize for and I still need some time to deal with what happened and think about where we're going next. Do you understand?"

"Fine, whatever," Kai scoffed. "Can I at least see the twins sometimes?"

"That depends," Victoria said smartly. "Will you have a tantrum and blow them up too?"

"No," Kai told her. "I won't. Why would I hurt my own children?"

"Well, I just hope you wouldn't," Victoria shot back. "I suppose I can bring them by sometimes, but I'm staying in the room for at least the first visit and I'm not bringing them anywhere near you until you have a place to live. Are you in the other dimensional house?"

"No," Kai told her. "I'm staying with Adrian and Helene until I find another place. See you with the kids in a few minutes."


"I can't believe you blew up your neighborhood," Adrian told Kai, his voice full of admiration. "That takes balls, doesn't it?"

"Not really," Kai told him. "I was just really pissed off. Would it be okay with you and Helene if Victoria brought the kids over for a bit?"

"Sure," Adrian nodded. "Why not?"

A few minutes later, Victoria arrived with the twins and, as she'd said, she stayed and watched him while he and Adrian played with them.

Soon, Adrian heard his name whispered and saw Helene motioning to him from the kitchen.

"What's going on?" She asked when he joined her. "Why is Victoria watching Kai play with the twins like a warden watching prisoners?"

"She's still mad about the alcohol incident at the party," Adrian explained. "She feels like Kai has slipped in his ability to be a responsible parent and is watching him like a hawk now."

"Oh," Helene nodded. And then to his surprise, she headed out into the living room and asked Victoria if she'd like to come to her and Adrian's bedroom and watch a movie with her. "You'll like it," she said. "I promise."

"All right," Victoria said. "I suppose one movie wouldn't hurt." She then told Kai, "You watch them carefully so they don't get into anything." With the promises of him and Adrian, she let Helene haul her away to the bedroom and then as they played with the twins, Kai said to Adrian, "You have a very smart wife. With you guys' help, we might get through this after all."

"Of course you will," Adrian told him. "That's what we're here for."


The following day, both Alistair and Klaus decided to surprise their wives at work.

"Well, this is nice!" Amy smiled as Klaus strode through her office door. "I hardly ever see you here."

"I know, I should come to visit more often," he smiled, before plunking an old photo album down in front of her. "These are old photos of me and Alistair and some other people taken…" He sucked in his breath. "Let me think: I want to say around the time you were born, but it might be later. I don't know. Sometime in the nineteenth century for sure."

Amy looked through the delicate album of old black and white photographs of men in suits and bowler hats and women in bonnets and dresses with bustles.

"You know, I don't ever think of myself living in this time anymore, but I did," she smiled. "These are nice. Thanks for letting me see them. I think I have some of my own that I want to show you too."

"Nice," Klaus smiled. "They began kissing but were interrupted by Steve again.

"Is James still frightening you?" Amy asked.

"No!" he said smartly. "I just thought I'd take a walk." He strode to the desk. "Cool pictures! Did you bring them so I could use them to learn the time travel spell?"

"No!" Amy told him, snatching the album up and putting it in a locked drawer. She and Klaus then went to lunch and once Steve was sure they were gone, he unlocked the drawer, opened the album, slipped a picture out, put it in his bag, and then, after shutting the drawer and locking it again, slipped out of Amy's office to show his friends his prize. If no one would teach them, they would learn it themselves.

The End

This story will lead to two following stories: The sequel to this one, called "Going To Know You Again," where Klaus, Amy, Alistair, and Astrid deal with the after effects of Steve casting a successful time travel spell (or at least the first half of one), and the first in a series about Kai, Victoria, and that bunch called "Between Friends And Lovers", where Kai and Victoria deal with their separation and all the issues that come with it.