Selina paused for a moment and then peeked at the dining room. No one was paying the least bit attention to her. "I'm so glad you're okay," she said into the phone. "Nicky, where are you? Are you actually at Enid's?"

"Yes," he said. "Will you meet me?"

"Of course!" she said. "I'm just having the most god-awful meeting with my parents. I would take any excuse to get out of it."

"What are you doing at your parents' house?" He asked.

"Daddy wanted to re-evaluate our relationship," she said. "Mama's not happy you turned her into a hybrid and now Daddy has lots of concerns about you."

"Well, how is that working out?" He asked. "Obviously, I'm not there."

"No," Selina said. "I had to trick Elijah into driving out with me. And Aleksandr is here too, just making everying an absolute mess."

"Sneak out," Klaus told her. "Sneak out and drive out to Enid's. I'll be here."

"I don't know if I should," Selina said. "Elijah will probably catch me."

"Not if you're quiet about it," Klaus said. "Just quietly slip out the back door, and by the time they hear the car engine and realize you're gone, it'll be too late for them to do anything about it."

Selina paused and looked into the dining room, at her father's face. Then she slowly shut the phone and came back into the kitchen. "Who was that, dear?" Amelia asked.

Selina shook her head. "It was nobody," she said. "At least nobody I should be talking to right now."

"Are you all right?" Her father asked. "You look troubled."

She shook her head. "No, I'm not troubled at all. I'm good, as a matter of fact."

Elijah was watching her face. Just before she sat down, he stood up and said, "Selina, I need to use the restroom. Would you come with me and show me where it is?"

Selina nodded. "Sure." She led him away from the kitchen and when they were out of earshot of everyone else, Elijah said, "It was Niklaus on the phone, wasn't it?"

She looked at him in surprise. "You don't seem shocked that he's free," she said. "Don't you wonder how it happened?"

"Well do you know how it happened?" He asked.

She cleared her throat and stared down at her black skirt, which stopped just below her knees. "I don't know exactly," she said. "He told me he's with Enid, you know, Vanessa's sister who created werewolves? He said that she told him something interesting about your mother, but I didn't ask him what it was. I assume it was Enid who freed him."

"You hung up on him instead of finishing the conversation?" Elijah asked.

She nodded. "I just...Daddy's worried about me and him, and Daddy's opinion is the one that I hold higher than all others, because I know he really cares about me. He killed my abusive stepfather, and even after he became a vampire, he still came back to Mystic Falls once a year to visit me and make sure I was all right. At least until I moved in with Damon, Stefan and their father. Then, since he knew I was in good hands, he stopped visiting."

"How noble," Elijah said.

Selina sighed. "Yeah. He took great risks for me and I don't want to be a disappointment to him. Nicky didn't have much to say anyway. He wants me to meet him at Enid's for three guesses what."

"Are you going to go to him?" Elijah asked.

"I thought about it," she said. "But now I'm not so sure. What do you think I should do?"

Elijah led her over to the sofa. "Sit down," he said. "And tell me why it seems to be that you're incapable of making a decision on your own."

Selina leaned forward. "What do you mean? I can make plenty of decisions on my own!"

He stood in front of her with his arms crossed. "Then why did you just ask me what to do about Niklaus? Are you unsure?"

She sighed. "No. I know I don't want to go with him. That it would just make me feel worse afterward."

He took her hand and looked into her eyes. "So why did you ask me for my opinion if you're perfectly capable of making the right decision by yourself?"

Selina sighed. "It's one of the facts of my life that I'm not particularly proud of," she said. "Despite the fact that I tout feminist ideals, there is not a point in my life that I can recall where I wasn't ruled over by a man. It's just something I'm used to. First, it was my stepfather, then Damon, then Aleksandr, then Nicky, then Damon again, then Nicky again. And yes, I did have a period between when Aleksandr left me and when I got together with Nicky for the first time that I was by myself, but that was lonely and miserable, and it's not an experience I care to repeat."

"So you've always been in the care of a father, husband or brother and haven't had time to learn how to properly live by yourself, have you?" Elijah said.

Selina nodded. "That's correct, I guess."

"Is it something you'd want to pursue?" He asked. "Would you want to give self-discovery a try? I think it would serve you well."

"I'm not sure if there's a point doing it now," Selina said. "What with the kids and all, I'd never be able to stay away from Nicky and Damon entirely."

"I'm sure we could make an arrangement where you could have your independence while still being able to take care of your children," Elijah told her.

Selina gulped. "What if I can't do it?" She said. She could feel herself beginning to hyperventilate. "It's all well and good for me to say I'm going to leave Nicky for my own good, but what if I can't do it? Has it ever been done before?"

"I believe it has," Elijah said. "And the person you need to talk to is quite accessible."

"Really?" Selina asked in surprise. "Who is it?"

"Roxanne," Elijah said simply. "Didn't she leave home for ten years without a word to Niklaus after he tried to hurt one of her friends? And if I recall correctly, they were quite close."

Selina snorted. "To say that Nicky and Roxie were 'quite close' would be an understatement. If she could have glued herself to him as a baby, she would have."

"And how old was Roxanne when she made her decision to separate from Niklaus? Six, seven years old?"

"Yeah," Selina nodded. "That's about right."

"Well, there you go," he said. "I assume that if a six year old can find it within herself to realize that she is unhappy and make a move to get out of Niklaus' clutches, you can as well...unless you want to be outdone by your daughter?" He heaved an exaggerated sigh.

Selina scoffed, standing up quickly. "Of course I can," she said. "I refuse to be outdone by a six year old, especially Roxie." Her phone began rining again. She saw who it was and then strode to the bathroom, threw her phone into the toilet and flushed it.

When she came back, Elijah was smirking. "That was Niklaus, I presume?"

Selina nodded. "Who else would it be?"

"Would you like to go now?" He asked.

She nodded. "I think I would. There's nothing else to be done here."

She squared her shoulders and strode back into the kitchen. Her father stared up at her curiously. "If the two of you were looking for the bathroom, it's not the way you went."

Selina shook her head, adjusting the bust of her raspberry blouse. "We weren't, Daddy. We needed to talk about something else entirely." She looked up at the clock. "Now if you'll excuse us, we need to get on our way. I have an appointment I have to be getting to." She looked around the table. "This has been a very enlighting experience."

Her father came to stand in front of her. "If I seemed harsh, I only said what I said because I worry about you. You know that."

She nodded. "I know you do, Daddy. Thank you so much for that. I'm going to be all right, though. I promise."

He nodded back. "I know you will." He looked over at Elijah. "Take care of her, will you?"

"I don't need to," Elijah said. "She will soon be doing a splendid job of taking care of herself."

"...I guess it's because I have trouble picking men, for starters," Selina said. They were driving back from Charleston and Selina was trying to figure out why all of her relationships turned out to be absolute messes. "I've never picked out a decent guy to be in a relationship with. Well, I suppose in his own way Damon was pretty decent. But his father still hated him. Thought of him as the black sheep. There were always fights between father and son about Damon's drinking and carousing even before he left for war and I heard most of it. But he was always good to me, so I guess it was easy to put all the bad stuff aside as long as it was just the two of us."

"And it never occurred to you to pay attention to the negative things?" Elijah asked.

Selina shrugged. "I just assumed that they were lies and his father was being unfair. That's the thing with both Damon and Nicky. They have this easy, rakish manner that makes you want to forget the bad stuff even if you do know there's a lot. And that's where I ran into trouble, I guess."

"In my opinion, if you care to hear it," Elijah said. He paused, and Selina nodded. He continued. "In my opinion, I think one of the problems you and Niklaus have is that when the two of you got together, you were not looking for love in your relationships. Aleksandr had abandoned you, you'd spent fifty years miserable and alone and that soured you on the whole idea of love being necessary in a relationship. As well, you'd been abandoned by two men you'd given your heart to, so when Niklaus came along, you didn't want to take another risk. A shallow, purely sexual relationship was good for you then and that's why you two were so successful. But then you parted, didn't you? Who's idea was that? His, or yours?"

"Mine," Selina said. "When your father showed up, Anna and Nicky knew that they were in danger. They had to get out of Paris as soon as possible. Nicky wanted me to come with him, because by then, we had fallen in love with one another. He told me to meet him at the train station so we could go and stay in Geneva until better plans could be made, but I just couldn't. Not only did your father seem dangerous, but..."

"But you were afraid of getting hurt again, so you ended things abruptly to save yourself the heartache," Elijah finished.

Selina nodded. "It's not something I'm proud of, hurting him like that. But it seemed like a good idea at the time. And when I saw him again thirteen years later, it was in Chicago. He was running a bar. When he saw me, he got so angry that he actually wiped all memories of us from my mind and sent me on my way. I only got the past back recently." She paused. "Aleksandr said to me that the only reason Klaus pursued me at all in the twenties was because I was the lost doppleganger and originally, the only thing he wanted to do with me was kill me so he could become a hybrid. Do you know anything about that?"

"All I know is that if that was Niklaus' original plan for you, it changed almost immediately," Elijah said. "All he ever told me about you were the good things."

"Really?" Selina asked.

Elijah nodded. "Really. But you're doing the right thing. It'll be difficult for you in the beginning, but you'll feel better about yourself."

"Oh, I have no doubt about that," Selina said.

"So are you going to go and see Roxanne?"

Selina nodded. "I think I will, even though I will undoubtedly feel ridiculous asking her for any advice at all."

"Sometimes you have to ask others for advice," Elijah said. "You aren't always going to know everything."

"And I have to remember to get a new phone, too," Selina said.

Later, when Selina drove over to Roxie and Vince's apartment building and stepped out of the elevator, she found a note on their front door: For anyone who needs us, we are in apartment 38C. Selina walked around and saw that 38C wasn't too far from Roxie and Vince's. She knocked on the door and a flushed Charlie answered a few minutes later. "Did you want to see Roxie?"

Selina sighed and nodded. "Of course. "What's going on?"

"This way," Charlie said, pushing her strawberry blonde hair out of her eyes. "Roxie and Vince are helping Tony and me plan our wedding and Roxie's being a big help!"

"...I cannot believe you would condone Tony wanting to be so cheap!" Roxie was yelling. "This is supposed to be the most romantic day of Charlie's life. Just what is your problem?"

"Well maybe he doesn't want to spend money on something stupid like veal shank as a main course!" Vince yelled back. "Hamburgers are cheaper and people actually will eat them so there won't be any wasted money! And while we're on the subject, why the hell would you need a strolling violinist anyway?"

"For background music," Charlie said, taking a seat next to Roxie on one side of a table while Vince and Tony stared at them beligerently from the other side. "Lots of classy places have violinists."

"I was thinking a DJ would work just as well," Tony said. "And it's not like we can't ask him to play some classical music if that's the ambience you want."

"No!" Roxie stood up and slammed a notebook down in front of them. "That would not do just as well. That would be the stupidest thing you said all day!"

Charlie turned to her. "Are you counting when he suggested that we have the reception at the bowling alley or not?"

Roxie nodded. "I stand corrected: that was the stupidest thing you've said all day."

Selina cleared her throat. "If I could just interrupt for a moment..."

Roxie turned to her mother. "What would you have done to Daddy if he suggested your wedding consist of a DJ and hamburgers at a bowling alley?"

Selina sat down next to her and scoffed. "Well, for one thing, your grandmother was in charge of our wedding and she wouldn't have put up with that for a second, and for another, that's exactly why your daddy and I made a getaway on the yacht to his private island."

"Daddy has an island?" Roxie asked. "Why haven't we ever gone there?"

"There are several reasons, but the main one is that one visit there would require years and years of therapy to help you recover. I'm not so sure I've gotten past it yet."

"That reminds me," Charlie said, "I've always wanted a wedding in the Caribbean. Let's do that!"

"No!" Tony and Vince said at once.

"And there's the death of my childhood dream," Charlie said.

"Why don't you try compromising?" Selina suggested. "There doesn't seem to be much of that going on."

"Fine," Vince said, looking at Roxie. "We'll give you the harpist and the ice sculpture if you give us the pinata."

"All, right," Roxie nodded. "But only if we can keep the cucumber sandwiches instead of the mini hot dogs."

Vince was about to open his mouth when Tony put a hand up. "No, Vince. Don't agree to that. If I want anything in this wedding, it's the mini hotdogs. Charlie isn't the only one with a dream."

"Relax," Vince told him. "I'm here for you."

Tony nodded and Vince looked across the table. "So what do you girls say?"

"Nope!" Roxie shook her head. "The mini hot dogs are a deal breaker." She took a pen and roughly crossed it off the list.

"Fine," Vince said. "I guess the little kiddies will be getting cotton candy after all."

"Oh, don't you dare," Roxie said. "I'm not having a bunch of hopped up little runts ruining the atmosphere."

Vince grinned. "If I pay for it, there's nothing you can do."

Roxie frowned. "Well, let me just say that you are out of line, and might I add, stupid!"

He grinned wider. "I know you are," he said. "But what am I?"

Roxie scoffed. "That's real mature!"

Selina sighed and left the room, shutting the door on Roxie and Vince's arguing. She obviously wouldn't get anything profound out of Roxie today.

"I got your message," Aleksandr said as he strode into the bar and took a seat at a table across from Klaus, who was already very drunk. "What's the matter?"

Klaus' head was on the table. "Selina hung up on me today," he said. "She's never done that before. Why would she do that?"

"I saw her before it happened," Aleksandr told him. "Her parents invited me to her house the same time she and Elijah were there and..."

Klaus found the strength to sit up. "What was Elijah doing with Selina at her parents' house?"

"I think she wanted to introduce him to them," Aleksandr said. "And at one point, they said they had to 'go to the bathroom' and left together. They were gone for an awfully long time. So long in fact, that I decided to investigate. I found then in the living room talking to each other. They didn't know I was there, of course. Otherwise they would have spoken a bit quieter."

"What did they say?" Klaus asked.

"To put it bluntly," Aleksandr said, "and it really pains me to tell you this because you're my brother and I love you, I think Elijah was encouraging Selina to leave you. And she was hanging on every word."

"She was?" Klaus asked. His eyes widened. "Why would she want to leave me?"

"Well Elijah said that he thought Selina wasn't happy and that she should take action to be independent, but personally, I think it's just because he's secretly in love with her and wants her for himself. Why else would he have daggered you? Because he knew that if you were still around when he tried to pursue Selina, you'd interfere. By daggering you, he was absolutely assured you'd be out of the way while he made his move. If I were you, I'd find her and put a stop to this right now. Otherwise, it'll be just like Roxie all over again. And could you be without Selina for ten or more years?"

"No," Klaus shook his head. "I couldn't. No other woman is worth anything to me." He held up his glass. "I owe you one, brother. To you."

Aleksandr brought up his glass too. "It's my pleasure," he said.