A/N: Trust me people I've been just as impatient as you for Adalind's return to Portland. Well the wait is over! Now it really starts heating up :-).

Chapter 11 Adalind

Finally, Victor decided to move his slow pedantic backside, Adalind thought, but hopefully she'd be done with the weasel soon. They would arrive in Portland within the hour. Adalind's heart was racing. She found herself trying to recall why she had been in such a hurry. Too many people hated her there for her to ever feel at ease in her former home town. True she was under the protection of the Royals, but Nick and his gang were able to take Diana right out from under Victor's nose. Besides, Victor was not to be trusted either.

Taking a deep breath, Adalind squared her shoulders. For all her bravado, all her fight and sass, Adalind wished for once she didn't have to fight everyone. She had not one confidante, not one friend she could be at ease with. Someone she could cry to when that aching hole that had been Diana became inflamed with fresh sorrow for the loss. No mother or father, no lover, no one. There was only one person Adalind could ever trust again and he was somewhere fighting for the resistance. Kelly Burkhardt had been in that category right up until that moment in the police station when she tried to convince Adalind that she should give up Diana.

Shaking off the self-pity, Adalind knew it would profit her nothing. Her Diana couldn't afford wasted emotions and energies. They finished with customs and headed to The Deluxe Hotel. Adalind knew her mood was better when she observed how much of her life was running in a circle. Portland-Austria-Portland-Austria-Portland. Okay now she was just making herself dizzy. Maybe it was time she did things a little differently. Diana needed stability.

With his usual and very annoying pomp, Victor ushered her into a suite. "It's no castle," Victor remarked.

"It's no dungeon, either," Adalind cynically threw back at him.

"Aren't we glad to be done with all that," he said smugly. 'We'? Who's 'we' you snake, she seethed.

Letting just a little of her venom leak into her voice, she replied, "I may never forgive you." She finished it with a pretty pout. Yes, Victor seemed to be dancing attendance on her now. Adalind had him where she liked most of the men in her life. Sean had too much power over her and Nick... Why had she even thought of him?

"Perhaps this will help you," Victor said smoothly and walked towards to closet. Pulling back the french doors, he revealed a closet full of exquisite clothes, shoes, accessories and jewelry. "Reconciliation," Victor continued. As wonderful as the sight was, it wasn't quite the 'Mecca' that it used to be, Adalind realized. Still, she should be appropriately awed.

"You did all this for me?" Adalind asked with just the right amount of gratitude.

"Why wouldn't I? We're in this together, aren't we?" Victor's comments and the gifts before her were more than evidence of his desire for her. However, Adalind hoped he didn't think her body could be bought. Maybe in the past, but Adalind had changed for the better.

"How do you mean that," she voiced her objections.

"Simmer down. I have my own bedroom," he was quick to reply to which Adalind smirked.

"Well, this is all very beautiful, but when do we get serious?" Once again Adalind tried to pin down his plan. Victor had been surprisingly slippery.

"Don't make the mistake of thinking we're not. We did not come all this way to go back again empty-handed," he responded to the point.

Crossing her arms, she said, "No. We did not." And if you think you're going to just take Diana away from me like you were planning to before, you have another thing coming, she stewed inwardly.

Victor walked away as someone knocked on the door. A minute later, Adalind heard that voice which had drawn her for so long. Now that voice infuriated her. Sean! She heard him ask, "Where's Adalind?"

"Here," she responded stepping into the room. There he was, the smug bastard.

"I didn't think you'd ever come back," Sean said as if she should have known better.

"I didn't think you'd steal our baby," Adalind threw right back at him. They were making Victor nervous, she observed.

"Before this becomes a domestic, let us put the past aside and discuss the future," Victor stated as if the two of them would start slinging mud. Adalind just stared at Sean.

"Last time you were in town you threatened to kill me and my mother. Now that's a little hard to put aside," Sean said to Victor with accusation.

"Heat of the moment, things get said," Victor countered smoothly, "but I'm not here to get revenge. I underestimated you and I regret that mistake."

"I don't have the child," Sean simply stated.

Adalind nearly cut him off saying, "You gave her to Nick's mother. That's a little hard to put aside too."

"I gave her to the one person I thought would protect her," Sean said. It stung Adalind deep. Did he really think she wouldn't protect their daughter or that she couldn't protect her? Adalind had needed Meisner and Kelly when escaping Europe. Why wouldn't Kelly take both mother and daughter, Adalind asked herself for the hundredth time.

"I wonder what the resistance would say if they knew you'd betrayed them?" Victor tried to gain control of the discussion.

"But they do know, and I'll tell you what I told them, I don't know where the child is and I have no way of finding out," Sean stated. Adalind seriously doubted he was telling the whole truth and she was tired of his games.

She marched down the stairs towards Sean, but Victor detained her saying, "No, we're going to remain civil, at least for a little while." Adalind glared at Victor. They would both pay.

Victor continued to threaten then attempt to sooth Sean, but Adalind knew that was futile. With a huff, Adalind felt impotent. As she suspected, Sean didn't give an inch. When he had left Adalind warned Victor in an extra sweet voice, "The first thing he's going to do is tell Nick. Then Nick will get in touch with his mother and Diana will be moved again. We can't wait long." Victor just held a finger to his mouth as if to say she should hush. Adalind would have loved to smack him, just once.