That night, Selina came into her and Klaus' bedroom and collapsed.
"Tired?" Klaus asked.
Selina nodded. "Elijah has a plan to help Roxie. Well, not so much 'help' as 'destroy,' or I don't know what you call it. He says she needs to face reality and now would be a good time to get it into her head."
Klaus smirked. "I bet that wasn't as easy as he thought."
Selina shook her head. "No, we didn't get anywhere." She frowned at him. "This is all your fault, you know."
"My fault?" He asked. "What did I do?"
"Everything!" Selina cried. "You coddled her and told her she was the queen of the freaking universe and you know what that made me? The bad guy!"
Klaus began to rub her back. "Don't do this now," he said. "Not before bed. How are you going to sleep?"
Selina scoffed. "I don't want to sleep. I want to continue to ponder how our current situation is due to your spoiling Roxie rotten. You didn't leave her alone for a minute!"
"She was adorable!" Klaus said. "And it's not like you didn't do the same thing with Adrian."
Selina shook her head. "I didn't. At least I let him sleep through the night. When you woke up in the morning, I was always in bed with you and you never had to go into Adrian's room and find me asleep with him in the rocking chair!"
"She slept better if she was held," Klaus said. "Was I supposed to just leave her in her room and let her cry?"
"Yes," Selina yelled back. "Maybe that would have taught her a thing or two about disappointment. About how you can't always count on people cause sometimes they leave you for somebody else and don't come back!"
"Wait," Klaus said. "When Roxie was a baby, you thought I liked her better than you? Why didn't you say anything?"
Selina sniffled. "Well, I was used to it, I guess. And I didn't think it was right to think about myself when our kids needed us more."

Roxie was huddled on her bed and picking at a loose thread in her comforter. She was about to tuck herself in when the phone rang.
"Hey," Vince said. "Are you coming back, or not?"
"I don't think so," Roxie said. "We don't have any furniture so what's the point?"
"Actually, we do have furniture," Vince said. "While you've been moping the day away, I've been shopping."
"Where?" Roxie asked. "No place where I'd be caught dead, I'm sure."
"Fine," Vince said. "I'll just be lonely in our big bed all by myself."
"Okay," Roxie agreed. "It's probably made of shoddy construction, anyway."
Vince laughed. "Please. Knowing us, I don't think we could afford a bed that had shoddy construction."
"That was sensible of you," Roxie admitted. "But I can't come. I have a point to prove to my Daddy, and if I leave, everything will be moot."
"Fine," Vince said. "I'll be thinking about you...when I'm naked...in bed...by myself."
Roxie squirmed. "I don't care," she said. "Goodnight!" She slammed the phone shut and threw the covers over her head.

The next morning, Selina decided to try and get to Damon's and see about Sam. He'd probably have a lecture waiting since she'd skipped out on him for dinner. She wrote Klaus a note because he was out and got in her car, driving slowly to the edge of town and then parking in the street to walk slowly up the driveway of the house. She knocked on the door hesitantly, bracing herself because she figured that Damon would most likely be naked or something when she opened the door. But to her surprise, no one answered the door. Curious, she knocked again. "Damon," she called. "It's me. I'm sorry I bailed on dinner. But that's no reason not to let me in!"

"Looking for us?"

Selina started at the sound of Damon's voice and turned around. He was standing on the steps, holding Sam, who wore jeans and sneakers with a white shirt and black leather jacket with oversized sunglasses.

Selina came down the steps and went to meet them. "Yeah," she said. She grinned. "He looks adorable."

Damon smirked. "Adorable? Please. I was going for stylin.'"

Selina grinned and rolled her eyes. "Okay, he looks stylin'."

Damon nodded. "Thank you. Now, you have some explaining to do, young lady." He began walking to the side of the house where his car was parked and Selina followed him.

Selina sighed. "I knew you'd say something about that. Look, I meant to come. It's just that Roxie's in the middle of this thing and it would have been a bad idea for me to leave the house."

Damon frowned and placed Sam in the driver's seat of the car. "What sort of a thing?"

Selina rolled her eyes and pulled her red leather jacket tighter around herself. "Oh, I don't know. She caught Nicky bonding with Lucy and now she's all jealous and saying stuff like 'why'd you have to have her anyway?' It's ridiculous."

Damon nodded. "Obviously you've never felt the stings and barbs of sibling rivalry before. And why would you have? You're an only child after all."

"So you felt it with Stefan?" Selina asked, her hands on her hips.

He shook his head, opened the car door, picked up Sam and sat him on his lap. "Show Mommy how good you are at driving the car."

Sam just giggled and drooled and leaned on the horn. It caused him to burst into a fresh wave of giggles, but startled Selina so much, she fell straight back and landed on the ground. Damon opened the door. "Are you okay?" He asked her, holding out a hand. "Let me help you up."

Selina took his hand. "So you're like Adrian then," she said. "Mature enough to realize that your parents have enough love in them to love both you and the new baby."

Damon shook his head and grinned. "Actually, it wasn't that. Some family friends of ours had a pretty little daughter who took a liking to me. Used to follow me around all the time. Some boys would have found that irritating, but I found it charming."

She blushed a little. "You mean I was all that stopped you from being upset about Stefan?"

He nodded. "My mom talked to your mom about it lots of times. She even went so far as to call it a blessing." He smirked.

Sam held out his arms and Selina took him. "We should probably go inside," she said. "We really do need to talk."

"I think I know what about," Damon said once they were at the kitchen table. "And I know what you're going to say: You have to take Sam because you don't think you can handle dealing with your babies having two different fathers and since Klaus is the one you're married to, he automatically wins out."

Selina looked at him, surprised. "If I said that, would you accept it?"

He shook his head. "Nope."

She nodded. "I thought so. That's why it's not what I was going to say. What I wanted to ask was, what do you want from me?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. At the very least, I want you to be honest with yourself and be honest with me. What is it that we have here? Am I just your faithful dog, or do you come running to me all the time because you still have feelings for me?"

She took a deep breath, stared at him for a minute, and then banged her head once on the table. "I'm doing it again," she said.

"Doing what?" He asked curiously.

She shook her head. "I did it with Aleksandr when you and I had problems, and now I'm doing it with you when Klaus and I are having problems. I'm using you to make myself feel better and that's not fair."

He nodded. "So I am just the faithful dog, then. Good to know. Don't let the door hit you on the way out." She sniffled and nodded. But as she put her hand on the doorknob, he turned around. "No," he said. "I don't believe you."

She turned. "What do you mean?"

He strode across the room and took her in his arms, pulling her away from the door. He kissed her hard. "What are you doing?" She asked quietly when he pulled away.

"I know you have feelings for me," he said. "And trying to drive me away will not make them go away. It'll just make you feel worse. So I think you should just admit your feelings so we can deal with them."

Selina gently pushed him away. "Are you insane?" She asked him. "Do you realize what you're asking me to do?"

"I do," he nodded.

She tried to squirm out of his grip. "No," she said. "I just can't! Let me go!"

He let her go and slowly backed away from her, but he didn't take his eyes off her. "Are you going to leave?" He asked.

She shrugged. "I don't know!" She stamped her foot. "I can't believe you're making me do this!"

"Why won't you admit you have feelings for me?" He asked, sitting on the sofa. "You do, don't you?"

Selina turned and stomped over to the sofa, sitting next to him. "Yes, I do, all right? Are you happy now?"

He shook his head. "No. Because you're only saying that because you know it's what I want to hear, not because you genuinely agree."

"So maybe you're wrong and I don't," she said.

He threw up his hands. "Okay, you don't. Go home and have a nice life."

Selina got up and walked toward the door again. Then she sighed and turned around. "See? This is why I won't admit my feelings. You deserve better than me. Someone who can give you more than fifty percent. I don't want to lead you on, Damon. You deserve love and affection like everybody else. So I'm going to step aside and let you have that."

"I don't care how much of you I get," he said. "I just know I want you."

She looked at him, dumbstruck. "Why?"

He walked to her, picked her up, and carried her away from the door. "Because I love you," he said. "I think you're smart and you're sweet and you're funny." He paused and looked down her body. "And you're not looking too bad, either."

"But I just said I didn't want to lead you on!"

He nodded. "You made that clear and I appreciate it, but you can't stop me from feeling what I'm feeling just because it's inconvenient for you."

She frowned. "You are so selfish!"

"Well you're not selfish enough!" He yelled back. He put her down. "It's okay for you to want things and go after them! That's what makes life worth living!"

Selina shook her head. "It's not okay to take things if they aren't yours," she said quietly. "No matter how much you want them." She turned away. "I think I'll go check on Sam now."

Before Damon could say anything else, she disappeared down the hall to Sam's room.

When Selina reached Sam's room and looked in his crib, she saw that his hair was mussed and he was grinning and covered in dirt. "I think you need a bath," she said, picking him up. "Let's go get you cleaned up." While she was washing Sam, Damon came and stood by the closed bathroom door. "Lucky kid," he whispered. He then stood on the other side of the hallway until Selina dumped the water out of the baby bath and down the drain. When she opened the door, she was holding Sam wrapped in a towel. "Oh," she said when she saw Damon. "I wasn't expecting you to be there."

"I just wondered if you needed any help," he said.

She nodded. "Would you dress him?" She asked.

Damon nodded and took Sam away while Selina went to look out the window. "Oh, crap!" said. "It's storming like hell and I left my phone in the car! I'm going to have to make a run for it if I want to get home before it gets any worse."

"Just stay here," Damon said. "At least until the rain dies down."

She shook her head. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"Who's at your house now?" Damon asked.

Selina shrugged. "I have no idea. Klaus was gone when I left to come here. And who knows where Roxie went off to."

"Well if there's nobody at your house, then what's the point of going home?" He asked her. "Do you really want to be by yourself if the power goes out?"

Just then, a circuit shorted and the house was plunged into darkness and Sam started to cry. "Great!" Selina growled. "Just great. I need to go get him, but it'll be harder getting my bearings in the dark."

"I'll lead you," Damon said. "Just give me your hand."

"All right," Selina nodded. "But my hand is all you're touching!"

"Okay," Damon said shortly. "Fine."

She hesitantly put her hand in his and he led her to Sam's room. Selina picked Sam up and held him to herself. He quieted.

"You want to get back to the living room?" Damon asked.

Selina shook her head. "Not now. I don't think it would be wise for me to be holding Sam with only one arm in the dark."

"I'll go get candles," Damon said. "Or a flashlight."

"Be careful," she called after him. "Don't hurt yourself!"

"I won't!" He called back.

Sam was whimpering softly. Selina ran her fingers gently through his hair. "How about I sing you a lullabye, huh?" She whispered. She cleared her throat. "Can anybody find me...somebody to love? Each morning, I get up, I die a little. Can't barely stand on my feet. Take a look in the mirror and cry 'good lord what are you doing to me?' I spent all my years believing in you, but I just can't get no relief. Lord, somebody, somebody, can anybody find me... somebody to love? Got no feel, got no rhythm. I just keep losing my beat. I'm okay, I'm all right. Ain't gonna face no defeat. I just gotta get out of this prison cell, one day, I'm gonna be free. Lord, somebody, somebody, can anybody find me...somebody to love? I work hard every day, I try, I try and I try. But everybody wants to put me down, they say I'm going crazy. They say I've got a lotta water in my brain, got no common sense, I've got nobody left to believe..." She trailed off as she heard his regular breathing. He must've fallen asleep. She sighed. Queen really knew what they were talking about.

Just then, Damon came back with the flashlight. "Everybody all right in here?"

Selina nodded. "Yeah, fine," she whispered. "I just got Sam calmed down."

He came to sit down next to her. "Listen. About what I said earlier..."

Selina shook her head. "Let's not talk about that yet. There will be a time when we can, just not now."

He nodded. "All right. I won't push you."

Selina sighed. "I want to thank you," she said.

"For what?" He asked, looking surprised.

"For taking me and Roxie in when Klaus and I were having trouble. You didn't have to do that and I think it was very sweet of you."

He nodded. "It was no problem, really, Lina."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, then Selina put Sam in his crib and sat back down on the floor. "I'm so messed up," she said. "Ever since I had this whole hybrid thing happen, I've felt like there's two of me: The vampire-human part and the werewolf part. And the really annoying thing is, as much as I differ from my mother, she's the voice in my head. Her thoughts, her beliefs, and her morals are ingrained in my brain, even though I think some of them are stupid and wrong." She looked up at Damon now. "And you represent the human time in my life, when I had no choice but to be this severely repressed person. When I was growing up, nobody paid attention to what I wanted. Mama would say that the werewolf side in us was bad, and that it would rob us of our sense of right and wrong if we let it out. That all it would make me into was a person who took and took and took and had no regard for anyone but myself. That's why she said it had to be repressed. Because as leading citizens, it was our responsibility to set an example, not be a problem."

"She never really let you be a kid, did she?"

Selina shook her head. "I don't even know what that means." She took a deep breath. "Can I have a hug?"

He nodded, holding his arms out. "Sure, why not?"

They were still in each other's arms when the power came back on. This time, Selina wasn't as quick to pull away. "Thanks for listening," she said. "I don't get a lot of that at home."

Damon grinned. "But I'm guessing the werewolf part of you isn't much for deep conversation, anyway. Am I right?"

She nodded. "It really isn't. But lately, the sane side's been popping up at home, which is a good thing. It's forcing Nicky and I to go after a relationship with more depth. It's really sad when your kids have better relationships than you do." She paused. "Well, Roxie won't admit she does, but she does. I hope she's able to put all her stubborness aside one day, see the bigger picture and not nitpick so much about trivial things."

Vince opened the door to see Roxie soaked to the skin and standing grumpily on the front step of the apartment building. "Why are you so wet?" He asked.

Roxie pushed him aside and stood on the entry rug to wring out her wet hair. "I tried to come back last night," she said. "But it was too late, so nobody would let me in."

Vince burst out laughing. "Are you telling me that you spent the whole night outside in the rain?" He paused, noticing that her clothes were stuck to her body. He felt his mind begin to drift.

"What's the matter with you?" She snapped and his gaze went back up to her face. "I need to get upstairs so I can have a shower." She began walking toward the elevator and Vince followed her. "Yeah, shower. Sure."

The elevator up to their apartment was very narrow, so they were wedged together pretty tightly.

"Move your hand," Roxie growled.

"I can't," he replied. "I don't really have enough room to move anything." Finally, they reached the right floor and fell out of the elevator and into the hallway. Vince took Roxie's hand and pulled her up, then led her into the apartment. "Ta-da," he said. "What do you think of the place?"

Roxie's jaw dropped. "Oh, my god. I'm living in a mancave. And not just a mancave. A homeless man's mancave!"

"What's the matter?" He asked. "You don't like it?"

She turned. "No, I hate it! What were you thinking?" Then, she saw the chair, situated right in line with the door, a ratty orange and brown monstrosity covered with duct-tape and stains she didn't want to identify. "I'm totally redoing this place," she said. She strode over to the chair and began pulling it toward the door. "And this," she said, "Is the first thing to go." She had hold of one arm and Vince grabbed hold of the other. "No," he said. "This isn't going anywhere. I like it!"

"Yeah, but I hate it," Roxie said. "And you didn't even ask me before you brough it here. All decorating decisions should be made together."

Vince frowned. "Don't you mean 'made by you'?"

Roxie smiled. "That would be so much better. Thank you for suggesting it!"

Vince shook his head. "Over my dead body are you turning this place into Barbie's Dream House."

"I wouldn't! I would just make it...tasteful." She made another attempt to pull the chair. "This thing isn't going to last a week." She pulled off a piece of duct tape and stuffing spilled out of the seat. "See? It's falling apart already!"

"Well, anything will fall apart if you rip it!" He tore off the sleeve of her red designer blouse and she screamed. "I can't believe you just did that! This is very important to me!"

"Well the chair is very important to me!"

She ripped off another piece of duct tape and he tore off her other sleeve. Then, her face changed. She reached out. He thought she was going to go for more duct tape, but she ripped off his shirt instead. He grabbed hold of her with one arm, grabbed the lever for the foot rest, put it up and shoved her down on the chair. His eyes were flashing. She just smirked. "You know, if I put a match to this, I bet it would burn in a matter of seconds." He glared at her. His body was taut with tension. She slipped a finger under the last piece of tape on the right armrest and pulled.

He growled and fell on top of her, pulling off all her clothes. She unzipped him and shrieked as he drove into her. She bucked forward and he groaned as she pulled his hair. Just from the force of their bodies, the chair was flat now. As Roxie climaxed, a piercing sound could be heard over her shrieking. With one last twist of her body, the chair caved, and Roxie and Vince felt themselves hit the wood floor. They were both breathing heavily when Roxie sat up. "So, does this mean we get to go with a leather sofa for in front of the TV instead?"