"Can I borrow your wife?" Damon begged Elijah. "Please?"

"It depends," Elijah told him dryly. "What do you want her for?"

"I just want to talk with her about how to handle my mother and her new boyfriend," Damon assured him. "That's all. I'm not gonna do any funny business."

"Why do you have to talk to Selina?" Elijah asked. "Why can't you talk to Lucy? She's your wife."

"I've tried, but she really doesn't understand the situation the way Selina does," Damon replied. "You let me talk to Selina for an hour or so and I'll owe you a favor. Please?"

"If I tell you to go away, you'll just come back later, won't you?" Elijah asked, seeing that Damon was very determined to see his wife.

"Yes," Damon nodded. "Exactly."

"Well, I guess I have no choice but to let you in, then," Elijah sighed and ushered him in. "But don't talk to her too long. She's pregnant and I don't want her to get worn out."

"Of course," Damon nodded. "If I see her getting tired, I'll leave."

"Good," Elijah said as Damon sat down on the sofa. "You wait here while I go get her. She'd probably want me to ask you if you want anything. So…do you?"

"Thanks, but no thanks," Damon shook his head. "I'm fine."

"All right," Elijah nodded. "Wait while I go get her. Stay right where you are and don't touch anything."

"I won't," Damon put up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "I promise."

Elijah narrowed his eyes at the younger vampire for a few seconds and then went in search of Selina.

"Damon's here and wanting to talk to you about issues he's having with his mother because he says you're the only one who can understand and that talking to Lucy is no good," he told her when he found her reading in the library. "Are you feeling up to talking with him, or should I send him away and tell him to come back later when you're feeling more alert?"

"No, I feel fine," Selina said, putting her book down on the green sofa and standing up to follow him out. "I think the question here is not so much am I feeling up to talking with him, but are you feeling up to letting me talk to him?"

"Under ordinary circumstances, I would fight this more," Elijah replied. "But he seems very determined to discuss this issue with you, so I might as well let him get it over with now. Hell, as long as you leave the door open, I might even let you have some time alone."

"Well, how generous," Selina remarked. "It's amazing how sensible my being pregnant can make you. We'll try not to talk too long. I swear."

When they reached the living room, Selina took a seat on the sofa next to the one that Damon was sitting on so they weren't very close to one another and with that in his mind, Elijah departed for his office, leaving the other two to talk alone.

"So…what problems are you having with your mother?" Selina asked Damon. "Are you and Stefan still having trouble adjusting to her and Thomas being a couple?"

"No, I've accepted that," Damon sighed. "How can I not when it's being thrown in my face every day? And Stefan doesn't care as much cause he was always closer with Father anyway. You remember that."

"Yeah, I do…the little weasel," Selina said, her eyes narrowing as she remembered all the times she'd sneaked into the library, taken off her hat, her socks, her shoes, and let her hair down while she read in the afternoon and how Stefan would always find her and tattle about how she was really underdressed for it being the middle of the day. She then shook her head and focused on Damon again. His eyes had a light in them that hadn't been there when she came in the room. "Wanna talk about it?" He asked.

"No," Selina shook her head and cleared her throat. "We're here to talk about you and your mother. So the problem is that you feel ignored by her now?"

"Exactly!" Damon replied. "She comes back from the dead and it's just because of some guy! Not to see us or anything. Am I wrong to feel that way?"

"No," Selina shook her head. "Remember how I felt when Daddy and Christine fell in love and had Sarah? I felt left out too. I know you won't want to hear this, but the best way to deal with these kinds of situations is to accept the person that you feel is in the way. Now, that doesn't mean you have to like Thomas, or be buddies with him, but he and your mom are a package deal now, so you can't demand she leave him."

"Why not?" Damon asked. "She's my mother. I was here first."

"Is this how you felt when Stefan was born too?" Selina questioned. "How did you work your way through that? Think about it and try to apply the same methods to Thomas."

"It would be a lot easier if I knew he was willing to share Mother," Damon scowled. "How do I know that he's gonna try just as hard as I am? And what are you siding with him for? Don't you think it's weird that your brother is dating my mom? Think about how you would feel if Stefan were going after Amelia!"

"Well, that wouldn't happen because Stefan is not Mama's type," Selina informed him. "And if you took the time to get to know Thomas, you would see that he's nice enough and smart enough to realize that you were here first, so he'll make every effort not to just take over."

"Oh, sure," Damon scoffed and stood up. "Nice try, but I doubt that." He got up to leave. "I'm gonna go now."

"All right," Selina told him. "Sorry I didn't say what you wanted to hear. But I hope you think about what I did say."

"I'll try," Damon promised. "Even though I find it hard to believe."

He left and then Selina went to meet Elijah in his office. "How did that go?" Elijah asked as she sat down on his lap. "Did you get through to him?"

"I tried, but I don't think it worked," Selina sighed. "He sees Thomas as this instrument of sabotage. Not unlike you, I might add."

"I can acknowledge that I acted irrationally when he first showed up and we learned who he was," Elijah told her. "I don't think that way now, though. So Damon still thinks that Thomas is trying to destroy his relationship with his mother?"

"Yep," Selina said and gave Elijah a kiss. "But I think it's a lot of nonsense, personally. And if he would just get to know Thomas, Damon would realize that."

"I know you came back for me," Thomas told Charlotte. "And that's very nice, but…don't get so carried away by our relationship that you forget about your family. They're very important too."

"Oh, I know they are," Charlotte nodded. "But they're grown up and married with wives of their own. They don't need me. You do, though. I want to stay where I'm needed."

"How do you know they don't need you?" Thomas asked. "Are you just assuming that because of how old they are?"

"Maybe," Charlotte sighed. "They were just little boys when I died, but I've never…I've never been really maternal. At least not the kind of mother who smothers her children with unconditional love and is all about them. Even if I tried to reconnect with my sons, what good would it do?"

"It could do all the good in the world," Thomas encouraged. "You just have to try."

"All right," Charlotte nodded. "But how will we do that?"

"Simple," Thomas told her. "I'll find a way to absent myself, perhaps poker night with Amelia and Andrew. And then you can slip off to Damon's house and have a talk with him, unhindered by my presence. You think you can do that?"

"I can," Charlotte sighed. "I don't know what good it will do, but I'll try since you want me to so badly."

"Good," Thomas nodded. "I think it will be good for everyone in the long run. I really do."

"It's really nice that we were able to have a night for just the three of us," Andrew told Thomas as he and Amelia sat at the table playing poker. "Was Charlotte busy?"

Thomas shook his head. "If it were up to her, she wouldn't be, but I told her I thought she should take the occasional night to spend time with her sons, so that's what's going on." He looked over the cards in his hand. "I call," he said and laid them down. "Two pair."

"I got nothing," Amelia said and put her cards down.

"One pair," Andrew sighed and pushed the pile of change that made up the pot toward his son. "Looks like you win again, Thomas."

"Great," Thomas said and took the pot while Andrew shuffled the deck and dealt out the cards again. As he looked over his hand, he thought about Charlotte and her sons and hoped everything was going well.

"If Thomas sent you over here because you didn't want to come on your own, I don't want to talk to you," Damon said from his seat next to Lucy. "You can go back to him for all I care."

"And what good would that do?" Charlotte shot back. "I would still have to listen to you being concerned about my relationship because we didn't resolve this here and now, so that's exactly what we're going to do! I don't have much time and I don't want to waste it fighting with you."

"Oh, is that why you avoid me and be with Thomas all the time?" Damon shot back? Cause you only have so long and you'd rather spend it with him?"

"Damon, listen to yourself!" Lucy snapped. "Your mother just told you that she's gonna die at some point. Do you want to bond with her and make the most of it, or do you want her to die with thoughts of you being difficult?"

"Does it matter if she doesn't want to spend time with me anyway?" Damon asked.

"I do want to spend time with you," Charlotte told him. "But I just…I thought that since you're grown now and have a wife and a family, you wouldn't have time for me and that I would need to find other ways to entertain myself. If you'll make time for me, I'll make time for you and your brother. I promise."

"See?" Lucy told him. "I knew that if we just talked we could work things out!"

"Fine," Damon told her. "You make time for me and I'll make time for you. Do you promise that our time together will be Thomas-free?"

"If that's what you want, I'm sure we can work it out," Charlotte nodded. She then hesitated for a moment before holding her arms out. "Now, can I have a hug, please?"

"Really?" Damon asked and took a few steps forward. "It's…it's been a really long time since we've done that."

"I know," Charlotte smiled as she took her elder son in her arms and Lucy smiled widely. "Too long, don't you think?"