"And when were people going to mention to me that several people I care about, especially my daughter, have been sent back in time and might never come back?" Viktor asked once Selina and Elijah broke the news to him. "Don't you think I deserve to know? You should have told me as soon as it happened!"

"Oh, I know," Selina sighed. "There's no excuse, is there?"

"No," Viktor snapped. "There's not." He sighed. "The only good thing about this is that Alistair is always prepared for that sort of thing. He'll get them out eventually."

"Exactly," Amanda told him and gave him a hug. "It's going to be okay. You just have to be patient."

"My poor daughter!" Viktor cried. "She must be suffering horribly!"

"I bet she isn't," Selina assured him. "I bet with Alistair there with her, she's managing just fine."

Viktor sighed. "I wish I was the one with magic so I could get her out of this time travel mess myself. Don't get me wrong, I think she's perfectly capable, but a father has to worry."

"Oh, of course," Selina nodded. "Why wouldn't you?"

"But I don't want you to make yourself sick over it, though," Amanda added. "What can we or I do to make you feel better?"

"I would be most comfortable if I could be sent back myself and see Astrid with my own eyes, but we know that can't happen," Viktor replied.

"What if we took a vacation and got away from all this?" Amanda suggested. "Get a little sun on you, a little splash in the ocean…that will do you good."

"Actually," Viktor countered, "I've always been more of a cold weather person than a warm weather person. Have you ever skied?"

"No," Amanda shook her head. "It sounds difficult."

"It's a bit of a challenge when you start, but I'll make it easy for you," Viktor promised.

"Oh, all right," Amanda agreed. "Let's go skiing."

"Wonderful!" Viktor kissed her and then went to call the people that took care of his cabin and let them know he and Amanda were coming.

"That was very good of you," Selina told her daughter. "Viktor really does need something to keep his mind off this 'Astrid lost in time' business, and that'll be just the ticket."

"You don't have to talk like it's some big sacrifice on my part," Amanda told her mother. "Sure, I would have loved the beach more, but since this is to help Viktor, I guess it's better to do what he wants and consider it a learning experience. Plus I'll probably have a good view of some mountains and a chance to play in the snow. It's all good."

"Wonderful," Elijah replied. "Call us when you get there so we know you're safe!"

"I will," Amanda nodded. "What are you two up to right now? Still trying to have another kid?"

"Oh, of course," Elijah nodded. "But some things have popped up to distract us from that for a time. Your mother found out that she had a half-brother, and now her mother's friend Charlotte has a new male acquaintance and there's lots of trouble about that that we have to deal with. And your sister Lucy got possessed." Elijah shrugged. "Just another day, really."

Amanda scoffed. "Maybe the two of you should come have a respite in the mountains too, at some point."

"Maybe we should," Elijah agreed. "It would do us some good."

Viktor then came to say that they could leave now if they wanted.

"All right," Amanda told him. "We should probably pack first, though."

"Right," Viktor nodded. "I knew that."

"Have fun!" Selina called after them as they went to pack and she and Elijah headed home to work on lesson plans for the next day and take another stab at baby-making.

"I have to say I'm really touched by what you did, in a strange way," Thomas told Charlotte. "It's nice to know that you want to be with me so bad that you're willing to go to such lengths."

"Do you really think it's nice, or do you think it's odd?" Charlotte wanted to know. "Come on, you can be honest."

"I suppose a regular person would find it odd, or even disturbing, " Thomas mused. "But I don't. I mean it, really. Just as long as you don't do it again."

"Oh, all right," Charlotte nodded. "I promise." She got up and led him to the music room where she began serenading him on Amelia's piano with Fur Elise.

"Just a thought," Thomas told her. "Would you disappear? I think it would be quite amusing to see the keys play by themselves."

Charlotte agreed to this and it gave Amelia quite a fright when she came in looking for sheet music for a friend.

"What's so funny?" She asked Thomas, who was laughing himself sick. "Did you and Charlotte plan that?"

"No," Thomas said, his eyes glinting with mischief in a way that reminded her of Andrew. "It was a lucky coincidence."

"You have a strange definition of 'lucky'," Amelia told him, sheet music taken from inside the piano bench when she'd made sure Charlotte had vacated it. "Do you make a habit of playing pranks on unsuspecting people, especially women?"

"I don't mean it in a malicious way," Thomas told her. "But yes, I do think of myself as a fun-loving person. And I only go after women if I feel they can handle it. You have a sense of fun, don't you?"

"She's not always had one," Charlotte told him, slowly appearing and getting off the piano bench to come sit by Amelia. "It's not really her fault since she was raised in an environment where no one else really did either. But she's learning. Andrew's made sure of that."

"Well, I'm sorry," Thomas apologized. "I was just trying to have a little fun. I didn't mean to upset you."

"It's all right," Amelia told him. "I'm perfectly capable of taking a joke…I think." She then put the sheet music under her arm before striding out of the music room.

"I think she can't take joke," Thomas told Charlotte. "I'll have to make a note of that for the future."

"Oh, don't," Charlotte assured him, her blue eyes bright with humor. "She needs excitement in her life and we're just the people to provide it."

"You think?" Thomas asked. "I don't want to drive her away."

"You won't, as long as you wait some time before you trick her again. You're not doing anything her husband hasn't done a thousand times and she still likes him. I promise."

"What did he do?" Andrew asked as he laughed.

"You heard me!" Amelia said, still blushing about being frightened by Charlotte and Thomas. "Charlotte was invisible and she was playing the piano. Thomas put her up to it!"

"I don't know why you were so scared," Andrew said. "We were ghosts once."

"Well, if I had known she was in there, I wouldn't have been frightened of course!" Amelia asked. "But when you go in there and see the keys moving and aren't prepared for it, it's a shock."

A few minutes later, Thomas came in holding a rose in one hand. "Sorry about what happened with Charlotte," he apologized. "We won't do it again. Do you forgive me?"

Amelia gave him a look and then smiled. "All right," she said, not being able to resist how adorable the boy was. "Of course I forgive you. Just warn me next time, all right?"

"Well, if he warned you, it would ruin the effect of the trick, wouldn't it?" Andrew asked.

"Not for me it wouldn't," Amelia told him. She then looked at the clock. "It's almost time for dinner. If you want to eat, you better dress."

Andrew groaned. "Why do we have to do formal dinners anyway? It's not like we live in a big fancy house. It's just us!"

"It's only one night a week," Amelia reminded him. "That was the deal we made: you would let me do formal dinner one night a week if I let you eat in front the television the rest of the time without saying a word."

"Yes, but you always pick the night when the show I really want to watch is on!" Andrew complained. "If you would just pick another night, I won't complain."

"Oh, fine," Amelia groaned. "Next week we'll do it on Wednesday. Do you have anything you need to watch on Wednesday?"

"Nope," Andrew shook his head. "I'm completely free then."

"All right," Amelia nodded. "Now get dressed, all right?"

"I will," Andrew told her, then looked at Thomas. "She's serious about not being fed as well if you're not dressed properly. I'd come with me and dress if I were you."

Thomas got up and then said to Amelia, "I don't mind dressing up so much. It's nice to have a chance to do it."

"That's what I think," Amelia nodded. "It's so nice to know that I'm not the only one." She watched him go and then went to dress after putting Thomas' rose in a vase and checking on the caterers she'd hired to see how dinner was coming along and seeing, much to her relief, that everything was going smoothly, and that it all would be served on time.