"I wish Daddy was here to meet Jeffrey," Ethan said. "Where did Daddy go?"

"I don't know, sweetie," Selina replied as she finished frosting the last cookie in the batch she was making and handed one on the baking sheet to Ethan. "But I'm sure he's fine. Sometimes when your daddy and I have a fight, the best thing is for us to just stay apart from each other for a bit."

"What did you fight about?" Ethan asked.

"Your daddy caught me doing something that, while it was harmless, it made him very unhappy," Selina replied. "I shouldn't have done it, but there you go."

"So Daddy will come back?" Ethan asked, his brown eyes big.

"Yes," Selina nodded. "Daddy will come back. It will be fine. Now it's best to think of more cheerful things, like Jeffrey coming over. Can you do that?"

"Yes," Ethan nodded. "I think I can."

For all of her encouraging Ethan to be optimistic about Elijah's whereabouts, when Jeffrey showed up with his parents, and his mother asked where Ethan's father was, it was all Selina could do to keep her composure. "He wanted to be here, but he was called away on business," she said. "But he'll be back soon and more than happy to meet all of you."

Jeffrey's mother nodded, but gave Selina a very skeptical look. They let the boys play, but other than offering cookies and drinks, Selina didn't know what else to do with Jeffrey's parents.

Finally, when they left, she took a deep breath and shut the door, feeling immensely relieved.

"When can Jeffrey come over again?" Ethan asked his mother. "I had fun!"

Selina patted him on the head. "I'm sure you did," she said. "But what do you say to waiting until your daddy comes back to invite Jeffrey and his parents over again?"

"How long will that be?" Ethan asked.

"I don't know," Selina replied. "But I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. I'll call your brother Gregory tomorrow and maybe he'll help look for your daddy."

"Okay," Ethan nodded. "That's a good idea."

"What do you mean Father is missing?" Gregory asked Selina. "How long has this been going on?"

"Well, we had a fight a few days ago, and he stormed off with your uncle Klaus, and I thought he was just blowing off steam, but now I sort of have a bad feeling in my gut," Selina replied.

"So, what do you want me to do?" Gregory asked. "Do you want me to look? If he left with Uncle Klaus, maybe he knows something."

"You call your uncle, please," Selina requested. "With my luck, your dad will come in just as I start the conversation and we don't want that."

"All right," Gregory replied. "I don't know how far I'll get, but I'll give it a try."

"Thank you," Selina told her son. "I appreciate it."

"You're welcome, Mother," Gregory replied. After ending the conversation with her, he took a deep breath and thought about how to proceed. He'd never quite known how to talk to his wild uncle, so he tried the next best thing: Adrian, who had returned to Klaus' house at Alistair's request, cause he just couldn't handle being around Klaus anymore after what he'd done to Amy. Gregory dialed Adrian's cell number and waited patiently for his half-brother (and cousin) to answer.

"Yeah, what's up?" Adrian answered after a bit. He sounded tired.

"Adrian, it's Gregory," Gregory replied. "What's the matter with you? You sound strange."

"You just woke me up from a nap," Adrian replied, sounding a tad irritable. "What do you want?"

"Would you ask Uncle Klaus if he's seen my Father?" Gregory requested. "Mother hasn't heard from him in days and apparently, Uncle Klaus was one of the last people he was with." Gregory paused. "And aren't you a little old to take naps?"

"Oh, shut up!" Adrian replied. "If you had as much fun as I do, you'd want to take a nap too."

"So, will you ask your father?" Gregory pressed. "Mother would really appreciate it."

"Fine, fine," Adrian replied. "I will. Don't worry about it."

"Good," Gregory replied. "Thank you." He then ended the call and prayed that Adrian (who could be unreliable) would come through for him.

A few days later, Selina got the call from Adrian. "What did your dad have to say about your uncle?" She asked. "Please tell me it's something useful!"

"It is," Adrian replied. "But you're not gonna like it, and you're gonna really wanna kick Dad's ass."

Selina raised and eyebrow. "Well, that doesn't sound promising. But spit it out."

"Ronan has Uncle Elijah," Adrian said after a long moment. "He finally decided it was time to avenge what Mikael did to his family a thousand years ago, you know, killing them all, and Uncle Elijah is his victim."

"And just what does he plan to do with Elijah?" Selina asked. "Please don't tell me he wants to kill him? And did your dad betray your uncle and hand him over?"

"If he did, it wasn't intentional," Adrian replied. "But given how often those two have been at odds over the years, who knows?"

"Well, shit," Selina sighed. "Does your dad know where Ronan took Elijah?"

"No, he doesn't," Adrian replied. "I got out of him all I could, and considering he was kind of drunk at the time, it was quite a bit."

"All right," Selina sighed. "Well, thank you. And tell Helene and Liam that I'm thinking about them."

"I will," Adrian replied. "And you're welcome."

When Selina ended the call, there was a fury in her belly toward Klaus that she'd never felt before. She knew for certain that she'd never want anything to do with him after this. Killing Amy was bad enough, but to betray his brother too? It was just too much. She didn't want anything to do with that asshole anymore. He was Amy's problem now, whatever she chose to do with him.

"I think we should close down now, don't you?" Katherine asked a sour-looking Laura. "No one is coming."

"Of course no one is coming!" Laura snapped. "You canceled all the fucking appointments and now we're gonna have to reschedule everyone! What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I thought your brother was gonna invite us to come along and look for your dad," Katherine replied. "So I wanted us to be free."

Laura narrowed her eyes. "You've been married to my brother for more then ten years and you don't know squat about him. Of course he wasn't gonna invite us to come with him and look for Dad. He would consider that a man's job!"

"And I don't understand why that is," Katherine replied. "I know how to fight."

"Well, me too," Laura replied. "But Gregory is Gregory and he's not gonna change. I think you should go home before I kill you."

"What if I thought of something for us to do to pass the time?" Katherine asked.

"And what would that be?" Laura asked. "If you had a way for us to occupy our time, you could have mentioned it hours ago!"

"I just thought of it," Katherine replied. "What do you say we get Charlie and Elizabeth down here for practice pictures? You have a camera, don't you? And they're probably home from school by now."

As if to confirm Katherine's say, they next heard Charlie call out, "Mom! Katherine! Elizabeth and I are back!"

"What a lucky break!" Katherine called from the bottom of the stairs. "Wanna come down and do practice shots for the magazine photo shoot?"

"Sure," Elizabeth called back. "Why not? And have they found Grandpa yet?"

"Not yet!" Laura told her. "But your dad is out looking right now."

"Do you think Grandpa's gonna be okay?" Charlie asked when they reached the basement. "It would suck to just have Eli to remember him by."

"Oh, he'll be fine," Katherine replied. "He's lived a thousand years and nothing can kill him. What could go wrong?"

While Laura went to check on Eli, Katherine grabbed a camera and Elizabeth and Charlie did practice shots. After an hour or so, Katherine said, "How about one more and then you can both do your homework?"

"All right," Charlie replied and took Elizabeth in his arms. Then, to her surprise, he kissed her on the lips as the flash went off.

"Well, that was a surprise," Katherine said as she lowered the camera down.

"Yeah," Elizabeth agreed, looking at Charlie in amazement.

"Sorry," Charlie said, pushing up his sleeves to reveal temporary tattoos of dragons on both his arms. "I just went with the moment."

"No, it's fine," Elizabeth replied, touching her bottom lip with her finger.

Charlie was blushing now. "Let's go do our homework, okay?"

"Sure," Elizabeth said and preceded him up the staircase. "You and me alone together in a room...sounds good to me!"