"It's so nice to see that the two of you have recovered from what happened," Elijah told Christine as they and Selina and Matthew, along with Sarah, hung out in Elijah and Selina's backyard. "I would have been so sad if things had ended permanently between you."

"Oh, there wasn't ever any chance of that since I knew that he didn't actually mean any of the things he said," Christine told her father as Matthew took one of her hands and kissed it. "I just had to prove to him that I didn't put up with such overwrought emotional displays as that."

"There weren't any big fights, were there?" Selina asked as she reached out in front of her and grabbed some cereal from a small bowl to feed Sarah, who sat in her lap.

"Well, his wallet took a hit," Christine replied.

"Oh, I let you think it did, but it really wasn't much," Matthew informed her.

"Good," Christine nodded. "Cause I really didn't want to hurt you so bad." She kissed him on the lips then, which made Selina avert her eyes and busy herself with smelling the baby shampoo scent of Sarah's hair. She was pleased that her father was happy with Christine, but it still made her stomach roil to see proof of it.

Noticing his wife's discomfort, Elijah quickly changed the subject. "Anything else new and exciting going on?"

"Well, Andrew called and sounded all flustered when he told me that apparently, he and Amelia had a child that she sent to an orphanage cause she thought she'd have trouble raising him by herself," Matthew said.

"Oh, my god! I knew she was pregnant!" Selina cried out. "There was this one time she came to pick me up from Damon and Stefan's for my cousin Jeannie's birthday and she just…she looked like she'd put on weight. Of course when I asked her about it, she just frowned at me and told me not to be indelicate, but I knew something was up. And that didn't even include all the whisperings around town about why she spent all that time with Doctor Stensrund. I should have figured it out when I did the same thing before Joshua came along." Joshua was her son with Damon, whose birth was one of the last things that had occurred to her as a human. This was just a passing point of interest to everyone except Elijah, who knew who Joshua was and put on the same face he always did every time one of Selina's past relationships was brought up. So she quickly changed the subject again, kissing Sarah's hair. "We're still working on getting her a little playmate. It'll happen if it kills both of us."

"Oh, I hope things don't go that far!" Matthew told her. "Unless you were being hyperbolic, in which case, I still hope it happens. She gets along well with Junior and Finn, so another friend would probably be a good thing for her. She's got the temperament for it."

"Yeah," Selina nodded and kissed her sister's head. "I really think she does. And any friend she makes is lucky to have her."


"Okay, Grandma, thanks for letting us know," Lucy told Amelia as she perched on the arm of the brown leather arm chair where Damon sat watching TV with the remote in his hand. "We're really glad to know that. Yeah, sure. Of course I'll tell him. He's sitting right next to me. All right, bye."

"What does Amelia have to say to me?" He asked her. "I assume that's the grandma you were talking to because your father's mother would have no interest in me whatsoever."

"Good point," Lucy told him. "She told me to tell you that she got a letter from a man named Thomas telling her that your mother is haunting the bar where he works and that she's as happy as a clam. Apparently she thought Grandma Amelia would want to know that." She paused as she saw a slight shudder go through Damon's body. "What?" She asked. "What's the matter?"

"I just don't like the idea of strange men writing things about my mother, all right?" Damon asked, his voice testy.

"Don't tell me you're hoping your parents were together in the afterlife," Lucy told him.

"Well, no," Damon shook his head. "I always thought Mother deserved better than Father, but that doesn't mean I'm all right with just any man getting near her."

"I think you can calm down," Lucy assured him. "Your mother's been dead for years, remember? Even if she did develop a fondness for a live man, or he developed a fondness for her, who's to say it will go anywhere? I think it's highly unlikely. Do you think you can remember that?"

"Did Amelia happen to mention where the letter had come from? I'm gonna find out where Mother is, get Stefan to come down with me, and we'll meet this guy," Damon proclaimed, indicating that he wasn't listening to Lucy at all.

"No, she didn't say anything," Lucy told him. "But I'm sure the guy that is with your mother is nice. A real knight in shining armor. That's how I picture him." She grinned. "I might just go and paint that! What a great idea!" She ran off and Damon called after her, "Fine, paint what you want. Just don't hang it up where I can see it, okay?"

Lucy turned. "Are you sore because this is one of the rare times I'm painting a painting of people and none of them is you?"

"Maybe a little," Damon replied. "It's a bit hurtful."

"Oh, come on," Lucy told him. "It's fine. I'll paint it and once it's done, you won't even have to look at it."

"Fine," Damon told her. "Whatever." And while Lucy did her painting, Damon sat in his chair, drank his beer, and had his own thoughts about what his mother and her guy friend were up to as well as ideas about the man's character, personality, and intentions, none of which were very flattering or even had the slightest basis in reality, but were just products of his overprotective mind.


"Why isn't anyone at the bar today?" Charlotte asked Thomas one morning when the bar seemed very empty even though it was well past opening time.

"We've closed for the day because management wants me to deal with an alleged rat problem," Thomas replied. "I don't know what they're talking about, though. I haven't seen anything. People always get so jumpy when they know the health inspector is coming."

"Oh," Charlotte scrunched up her nose and got as far away from the floor as possible, then let out a shriek that broke a couple of windows and brought the room temperature down a few degrees as she saw a rat scurry out from under the bar, which caused her to launch herself into Thomas' arms.

"I-I don't think you can say it's an alleged problem anymore," she told him as she tried to control her breathing.

"How come I can hold you?" Thomas asked her, his blue eyes meeting hers. "Aren't you supposed to disappear or something if anyone touches you?"

"Not if you think I'm here, Thomas," she told him. "The more you believe in me, the more real I become. But don't get any ideas. I'm much too old for you anyway."

"Don't worry, ma'am," Thomas assured her. "I wouldn't overstep my boundaries that way."

"Good," Charlotte replied, then asked him to set her back down on the bar while he tried to kill the rat that was now scurrying around the barroom floor. Although the idea of him killing a rat disgusted her, the sight of him running around trying to catch it was comical and eventually she burst into laughter.

When the animal was finally caught and put outside because that was more humane, Thomas came to join her at the bar as her laughter subsided. "What's so funny?" He asked, his eyes sparkling.

"Just…watching you run is funny," She said. "Not really graceful, are you?"

"Not so much," he admitted, then turned on the radio as loud, cheerful pop echoed around the room. "Will you dance with me anyway? I promise I'm a better dancer than I am a runner."

"No, thank you," she told him. "I…I couldn't. I don't know how to dance to music like this at all."

"Well, let me show you, then," he told her, grabbing a mop and pretending to dance with it. "See? It's not so hard."

"Still," Charlotte told him, "I'd rather watch you dance than do it myself. It's so much more entertaining."

"Okay, I get it," he told her. "I won't ask you anymore."

"If you would like to do something for me," she told him to ease his crestfallen look, "maybe…maybe you could get me a drink?"

"All right," he nodded, perking up a little. "What would you like? I just might join you."

"Two glasses of wine?" She put forward as she turned to look underneath the bar. "Do we have that? White, please. Not red."

"Yes we do," he said, getting out some white wine and pouring it in two glasses. "To friendship?"

"All right," Charlotte nodded and clinked his glass. "To friendship."

The End

Next up: Damon and Lucy cope with Charlotte and Thomas while Selina and Elijah cope with Damon, and Thomas also learns secrets about his past he never knew that also shake Selina to the core when she hears about them in the upcoming sequel, A Chance For Happily Ever After.