The next day, Selina decided to go to Damon's. Now that she'd dealt decisively with one of the men in her life, it was time to be completely honest with the other. She drove up to his house and knocked on the door. Damon answered a few minutes later. "Well, look who's here!" He said. "What's the news?"

She stepped inside, ignoring him for a moment. She looked at Sam, who was sitting propped up against the sofa and picked him up, hugging him for a moment. "Hi, Sammy! I'm so happy to see you!" Then she put him down and turned to see Damon with his arms outstretched. "Don't I get a hug too?" He asked.

Selina sat down on the sofa. "That depends," she said. "Damon, I have to tell you something that's very serious, and how you react to it will determine whether or not you get a hug."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Damon asked. "You hug Sam automatically, but I have to meet certain criteria before you hug me? How is that fair?"

"Because," Selina told him, "hugging you is different for me then hugging Sam and you know it."

"How?" Damon asked.

She gave him a look. "Where your hands are by the end of the hug for one thing. They always start at the center of my back, but by the end, they invariably move south and end up on my ass."

Damon sighed. "Point taken. So, no hugs for me. What's the news?"

"Now, wait just a minute," Selina said. "I didn't necessarily mean you wouldn't get any hugs. There's still that possibility. But what I came to tell you is that I've decided to leave Niklaus for a little while. I need to decide what I want in a relationship and the kind of person I want to be before I go back into that snake pit again."

Damon's eyes lightened. "You left him? Do you need a place to stay? You know you can always stay here."

Selina shook her head. "Thanks, but I don't think that's a good idea. You and I have a history and I think it would be best if it didn't seem like I was showing favoritism."

"Cause I'm a problem too," Damon nodded. "Of course."

"I didn't say you were a problem," Selina said. "The difference between you and Niklaus is that you and I can be around each other without the temptation of the bedroom hanging in the air. Niklaus and I can't do that. Or at least he can't. Between the time Aleksandr left me and I got with Niklaus, forty-four years passed and I was celibate for all of them."

Damon grinned. "Come on, Lina. Why would you choose to torture yourself that way?"

Selina sighed. "Listen, do you want a hug or not?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I do."

"Then here is what I'm thinking," she said. "I don't want to cut you out of my life, cause truth be told, you really haven't done anything to warrant it. At least not in the last hundred and fifty-ish years. But if I'm going to come and see you, you have to promise me that we won't have any sort of sexual contact at all."

"Seriously?" Damon asked. "How can you ask me that? Do you know how hard that's going to be? I know what you look like naked!"

Selina sighed, her hand on her forehead. "Damon, please don't make this any more difficult for me than it already is."

Damon looked at her coldly and shook his head. "Well, it's no walk in the park for me, either!" He said. "You aren't the only person struggling in all this," he said. "I am too! Did that ever occur to you?"

Selina flushed a little, her eyes cast downward. "No," she said quietly. "Not really."

Damon got down on his knees beside her and put his hand under her chin to bring her eyes up to his. "I know I've screwed up in the past," he said quietly. "I know I have things to make up to you that I'll probably never be able to. But can't you at least give me a little credit for trying?"

She looked up at him and nodded, putting her arms around him. "I guess I can."

When they pulled apart, he said, "There. That wasn't so bad, was it?"

Selina shook her head. "But I didn't say it would be. So, do you have anything you need to tell me?"

"Actually," Damon said, "I believe that Anna and Stefan are already planning the twins' birthday. Stefan called me about it yesterday. Asked if we could have a small party here with the six of us, something much quieter after the big thing that Anna is convinced Elissavetta will want to throw."

Selina nodded. "I'd like that, actually," she said. "It would be nice to have the two of them together at some point during the day. And I'll need some quiet after what will invariably go on at Elissavetta's because there's always some catastrophe that crops up and makes everything unpleasant."

"I'll be more than happy to be allowed to miss it," he said. "But I'll be sending good thoughts your way."

She gave him a small smile. "Thanks for that," she said.

"So are you just going to go now that you've said what you came here to say?"

She shrugged. "I was actually planning on staying. But if you want me to go..."

"No," he said quickly. "I don't. Definitely not." He plunked Sam down on her lap. "Now can I get you a drink or anything?"

Elijah was alone in the apartment when he heard the knock on the front door. Curious, he got up and went to answer it, not at all surprised about who he saw on the other side. "Niklaus," he said, gesturing for his brother to come inside. "I would ask why you're here, but that's unnecessary, isn't it?"

"Yes," Klaus nodded. "I don't know what you did to Selina, but you have to convince her to come back."

"I won't." Elijah shook his head. "And I didn't do anything to her. I merely suggested that she evaluate where she is in her life and see if she's really happy. And as it turned out, the answer was no, so she's now taking appropriate steps to rectify that."

Klaus glared at him. "I hate you," he said.

Elijah sighed and brought Klaus a drink. "Niklaus, you act as if you have no control over this situation."

"I don't," Klaus took a big gulp and shook his head. "You went behind my back and betrayed me."

"You're a fool," Elijah told him. "What I'm doing can only help you."

"Oh, yes?" Klaus asked suspiciously. "How?"

"You have control over yourself," Elijah said. "You can change your own behavior. I assume you weren't always like you are now. Do you remember what you were like when you and Selina first met?"

"I wasn't much different," Klaus said. "Although I suppose I did focus less on the physical part of our relationship back then and more on the other things."

"That's something," Elijah said encouragingly. "Why aren't you doing that now?"

"Things are different now," Klaus said. "Now my werewolf gene is activated. Back then, it wasn't. Do you know how hard it is to focus on things other than sex when you have an active werewolf gene?"

"Yet it can be done," Elijah told him. "Selina's doing it. Why don't you give it a try and see what happens?"

"What's the point?" Klaus asked. "She won't even talk to me. We haven't been in the same room in weeks."

"But I have a feeling there will be one place that the two of you will be together, and soon."

Klaus turned to him. "Lucy's birthday party!" He said, realization suddenly dawning.

Elijah nodded. "And I bet Mother is still angry with me for what I did to you, so I won't be invited. She'll find some other task for me to do instead."

Klaus grinned. "And without her safety net, Selina will be forced to face me. Brilliant."

"What will you do when you see her?" Elijah asked. "I want you to tell me now."

"I could show her Mother's art collection," Klaus said. "She's never seen it before, and the hours we spent at the Louvre alone are too many for me to count."

"That's a start," Elijah said. "I just hope you can pull it off."

Over the next couple of months, Selina kept herself busy. The first order of business was finding a new apartment. She couldn't stay with Elijah forever. She was looking at the apartments for rent on the internet one day, when Elijah asked, "Are you sure it's an apartment you want? Why not an entire house?"

She shrugged. "An entire house would be a little big for two people, wouldn't it? And it's not like I'm going to be there very long. Going through the whole process of buying a house when I'm only going to be moving out a few months later seems a little wasteful, don't you think?"

"Your confidence in Niklaus' desire to improve himself for you surprises me," Elijah said.

Selina sighed. "Well, I find it easier to believe in the best of people. Even your brother. Well, Nicky anyway. Now Aleksandr..." She shuddered. "I don't know what to think about him." She turned. "You do know about Aleksandr and me, don't you?" She asked him.

He nodded. "After he left you, he had second thoughts, but by then it was too late to go back. That's why he asked me to help him keep an eye on you. Don't you remember that?"

Selina sighed and shook her head. "No, I'd forgotten that. But if he originally wanted to protect me, then why is he trying to ruin me now?"

Elijah shrugged. "I don't know. That's something you'll have to ask him. Now, have you found anything promising?"

Selina pulled up a picture of a light-blue painted apartment with dark furniture and large windows. "This one is a two bedroom, good neighborhood, not too far away. It could work."

"All right," Elijah said. "We could go take a look at it if you'd like."

Selina nodded. "I would like."

Once she'd gotten a better look at the place, Selina decided that it was the apartment for her.

"I want to move in as soon as possible," she said as she and Elijah were driving back to his house. "They said I could come any time. I mean, I'll still have to do my laundry and pack and stuff, but after that."

"I think that's a good idea," Elijah said approvingly. "Not that I don't enjoy having you around immensely."

"But I have to have a life for myself," Selina nodded. "I got it."

They arrived home and Selina began making lists of the stuff she would need to take to the apartment. "And I'll probably have to do all my clothes," she said. "I don't trust those apartment washing machines. At least not when I have a better one here. I should use it while I can."

It took her a week or so to get everything packed up and brought over to the apartment. Then, the day before she moved in herself, she decided to tackle the laundry.

She was carrying some stuff to go in the gentle cycle when she happened into Elijah's room and noticed some clothes on his bed. "I'm doing stuff on the gentle cycle and I could take things of yours if you want," she called to him. "It wouldn't be any trouble."

But he was in the shower and didn't hear her. "I'll just take them anyway," she said to herself, scooping them up. " They're a little wrinkly. No sense using two loads' worth of water when I can just do them now in one." She carried her armload out of Elijah's bedroom, shutting the door behind her just as the shower turned off.

Elijah got out of the shower and wrapped a towel around himself. He opened the bathroom door and strolled over to his bed, stopping short when he saw that the clothes he'd carefully laid out on his bed were gone.

He was sure he'd laid them here. He looked under the bed to see if they'd fallen off and landed there, but they hadn't. He went to the door and opened it a little. "Selina!" He called. "Selina, could you come here?"

Selina came to the door a minute or so later. "What do you need? And why are you hiding behind the door like that?"

"Because I'm not wearing anything at the moment," he said. "I had clothes laid out on the bed for when I got out of the shower and they've gone missing. You wouldn't know where they are, would you?"

She nodded. "As a matter of fact, I do. I took them to be washed because they seemed a tad wrinkly. they're in the machine right now. You'll have them in about forty-five minutes. Can't you wait that long? Or how about putting on some other clothes? I'm sure you have others in there."

"I don't see any reason to put on a whole new outfit when there's still much of today left," he said.

Selina opened the door. "Well, I'm sorry," she said. "But there's nothing I can do now." She saw that he was in his towel and gave him a full body sweep with her eyes. "I don't see why you're so eager to dress anyway," she said. She gestured at him. "There's nothing about you that really needs to be covered up. You're very nicely built. Why so modest?"

"Because," Elijah said through his teeth, "it's not right to just walk around unclothed."

She shrugged. "Nicky does it all the time."

Elijah looked heavenward and nodded. "Yes, well, it should be obvious that I think differently. You and I aren't married or even engaged. You are in fact, married to my brother. Therefore, it would be inappropriate to..."

"Blah, blah, blah," Selina gave him a grin. "Learn to take a compliment will you?" She winked and made it to the door, opening it and stepping on the other side of the threshold. "I'll bring you your clothes when they're done. I promise."

"Wait!" He cried. "You can't just leave me here like this!"

But she shut the door and his protests were cut off. He went to sit on his bed and wait, since he had no other option.

When she brought him his clothes, she was apologetic. "I am so sorry," she told him. "I honestly wasn't trying to pull anything. It was just that these were the same type as the ones in the load I was doing and I thought I could save water if I just did everything at once."

He took them from her. "It's all right. You meant well."

She nodded. "I really did. Now I'll leave you alone so you can dress." She turned and strolled out, shutting the door behind her. But then she kept her hand on the handle, opening it a crack to watch him dress. He really was nicely put together.

Finally, it was the day of the twins' birthday. Although Elissavetta had indeed planned a big party, she hadn't been that upset when Selina had told her that Sam had to stay out of it.

"What a shame," she'd said. "But if he can't really handle crowds, we wouldn't want to overwhelm him, now would we? But Lucy will still be with us?"

"Of course," Selina said. "What would the point of the party be if Lucy wasn't there?"

"Before you hang up," Elissavetta said, "Aleksandr would like a word."

"I just bet he would," Selina said under her breath. "What do you want?" She snapped when he came on the line.

"Temper, temper," Aleksandr said calmly. "Is that any way to greet your former love?"

"Shut. Up." Selina said through her teeth. "If you don't tell me what it is you want right now, I'm going to hang up on you."

"I just wondered who you were bringing to the party with you," he said smoothly.

"I don't know," she said. "I guess I'll be coming with Elijah."

"Oh, but dear, he's not coming," Aleksandr said.

"Then I'll come by myself," Selina said flatly. "There's no law that says I have to come escorted. Besides, I'm sure you and Nicky will be waiting for me."

"Why don't you bring that ex of yours?" Aleksandr said. "The one you used to complain about all the time when we were married? I haven't spoken with him in awhile."

Selina rolled her eyes, took the phone away from her ear and turned it off, hanging it up. She wouldn't take the bait. She wouldn't.

She picked up the phone again and called Elijah. He answered right away. "Yes?"

"What's this about you not coming to Lucy's party?" She asked. "Aleksandr just told me."

"Mother has asked for my assistance on something that will make me unable to attend. Besides that, I think this will be a good opportunity for you to show off the independence you've worked so hard to obtain these last six months," Elijah told her. "I'll be eager to hear how things went, though. How successful you were. Will you come and visit me tonight?"

"Okay," Selina said. "I guess I will." She paused. "Actually, I'm going to make the cake for the party and I'm so tiny that I can't reach some of the stuff that you put in the cabinets, so could you come over and help me?"

"I'll be over soon," Elijah replied.

"You know if you keep eating the batter, there won't be enough left for you to actually make the cake."

Selina turned around sheepishly, a chocolate batter-covered finger in her mouth, to find Elijah smirking at her.
She took hold of the wooden spoon in the batter bowl and gave it a good hard stir.

"I took that into account," she said. "There'll be enough. Don't even worry about it."

He just looked at her and shook his head. "Do you need any help?" He asked. "It looks like you could use some help."

Selina looked down at her jeans and pink short-sleeved t-shirt which were covered in flour and batter stains. There was also flour in her hair, which she'd put up in a messy hairstyle with a clip. "I'm doing all right, actually," she said. "The mess is half the fun."

He shook his head. "You really have no idea what you're doing, do you?"

Selina shook her head, but held up the cookbook. "It's all in here. How difficult could it be, really?"

He looked around the kitchen. When she said she'd made a mess, she wasn't exaggerating. "What happened in here?"

She shrugged. "I accidently detached the beaters on the mixer too early and I couldn't get them back on." She opened the cookbook again. "Do you know where the vanilla is?"

He looked toward one of the higher cabinets. "Up there," he said. She grabbed a stool and climbed on it, reaching up to the shelf, her fingertips just barely touching the bottle.

"Here, let me help you," Elijah said, coming up behind her and putting an arm around her waist so she didn't fall and then reaching up for the vanilla with his other hand. He grabbed hold of it and handed it to her. They stood like that for a few seconds, the rose scent of her shampoo reaching his nostrils. He inhaled slowly, then let her go, clearing his throat.

"If you need anything else, just let me know," he said.

She nodded. "All right. Thank you."

He quickly strode away from the kitchen and sat himself down in Lucy's room. Selina had dressed her up in a pink dress with a white and pink bow in her dark blonde hair. She looked up at him with Selina's wide blue eyes. Then, she lifted up her arms and cooed. Elijah picked her up and took her over to the rocking chair, sitting her down in his lap with a book.

By the time Selina found them, they'd nearly made it through Lucy's entire bookshelf of picturebooks. "Here you are!" Selina said.

"Do you need anything else?" Elijah asked, putting the book down and standing up.

"No," Selina shook her head. "I've got the cake in the car, and we have to leave for your mother's in about five minutes." She looked from his face to Lucy's. "You two been having a good time?"

Elijah nodded. "Of course we have." He gave Lucy a smile. "We'll finish the books in your bookshelf next time, young lady." Lucy grinned back at him and then held out her arms to Selina. "Thank you so much for entertaining her," Selina told him.

"It was no problem, really," he said. "I was happy to."

Selina nodded. "All right, then. I'll see you tonight with a full report of all the chaos that will make you grateful you weren't there."

He smirked. "I look forward to it."

Selina had a feeling in her gut as she walked toward Elissavetta's house that something was going to happen at this party. She stepped inside, holding Lucy tight to herself. "I'm here!" She called when no one came to greet her. "And I brought the birthday girl!"

Soon after that, she heard footsteps, but it wasn't Elissavetta who appeared. It was Roxie. "I didn't know you were coming," Selina said in surprise.

"Of course," Roxie said. "It's my little sister's birthday party, after all. You're going to meet Damon later for Sam, right?"

Selina nodded. "Yeah. We got that all worked out. Where is everybody?"

"The kitchen," Roxie said. "And the living room next to the kitchen. Dad's here too. Are you two all right? Dad told me you left him. And it made him so upset that he made Vince into a hybrid. Could you have a word with Dad about that?"

"Didn't Vince want to be a hybrid?" Selina asked.

"Well yes," Roxie sighed. "And I told him it was a stupid idea."

"Well listen," Selina told her. "I'm not going to scold your dad because if Vince wanted it to happen, he would have found some way to get it done, no matter what you said. Sometimes, guys will do stupid things and women can't do a thing about it, so personally, I say chalk this one up to experience and move on."

Roxie frowned. "I was hoping you'd say something else."

"I know you were," Selina told her. "Now will you take me to the kitchen?"

As she and Roxie walked toward the kitchen, they passed an anteroom where Adrian and Helene were huddled together. "Now are you sure you know what you're doing?" Helene asked him. "If you don't do this the right way, it'll just cause a fuss."

"Look," Adrian whispered back. "Uncle Aleksandr's been giving Mom trouble for years and I think it's time somebody put a stop to it, don't you?"

"But why would you pick your little sister's birthday party?" Helene asked him.

"Well, when else are we all going to be together?"

Selina almost interrupted them, but then decided to pretend she hadn't heard and move on instead. It might do Aleksandr some good to get some wood through the chest for a while.

"Daddy's in there," Roxie said, pointing to the kitchen where Klaus was indeed standing against the sink nursing a scotch. Selina nodded and strolledi n, clearing her throat. "Hi," she said. Lucy saw him and began squirming and reaching out. "Looks like somebody wants to see you."

Klaus looked up at her and grinned, taking Lucy. "Look who's here!" He said, cuddling her to him. "Happy birthday, lovely! At least you're happy to see me!" He looked at Selina. "Did Roxie tell you to come in here and berate me about Vince?" He asked. "Are you going to tell me what a terrible person I am?"

She shrugged. "I wasn't planning on it. In fact, I told Roxie to just let the whole Vince thing go. If he was determined to become a hybrid anyway, which she said he was, he wouldn't have listened to her no matter what she said."

"Oh," he said in surprise. "Well, thank you."

She nodded. "No problem."

"Turn around," Klaus whispered. "Here comes Mother."

Selina turned. "Elissavetta! Hi!"

Elissavetta gave Selina brief smile and took Lucy from Klaus. "There's the birthday girl!" She exclaimed. gave Lucy a hug and then looked back at Selina. "I hope you remembered the cake," she said. "Did you?"

"Yeah," Selina nodded. "Do you honestly think I would put all that work into it and then forget about it."

"Well, I don't know," Elissavetta said. "Some people will do anything to ruin a party." She took Lucy and left the kitchen.

Selina shut her eyes tight. "Nice to see you too," she muttered.

"Do you need help bringing the cake in?" Klaus asked.

She nodded. "That would be nice."

They went out to Selina's car. Selina opened the trunk and Klaus pulled the cake out. "This is beautiful," he said. "You made it by yourself?"

She nodded. "Thanks. I made a mess of the kitchen, though."

He grinned and shrugged. "The mess is half the fun."

"You know, that's what I said," Selina agreed. "But Elijah didn't really go for it. He was helping me because he put all the necessary ingridients on the high shelves in the kitchen. And speaking of him," She paused. "Has your mother asked about Susan?"

Klaus shook his head. "Not yet, but I assume she will any time. And when she does ask, I'll tell the truth. She'll be madder if I don't."

Selina nodded. "Well, as long as you've got a plan."

They got inside and put the cake on the kitchen table. Just as they were about to leave, Aleksandr happened in. "You're here," he said to Selina. "Did you...bring anyone?"

"No," Selina shook her head. "Just Lucy. This is her birthday and I wasn't about to let you ruin it by getting into a fight with Damon. I wasn't."

"Well, can you blame me if the very thought of him makes me cringe?" Aleksandr asked. "You complained about him at least once a day for for the entire ten years we were married. It would be stupid of you to expect me to cheer and throw a parade at the sight of him."

"I didn't say you had to like him," Selina said. "But I don't see why you have to start unnecessary trouble, either. Just leave it alone. Which will be all the easier because I didn't bring him with me."

Klaus put a hand on Selina's back. "Look," he said to her as she stared murderously at Aleksandr, "Mother isn't going to want to surrender Lucy until the party's over, so why don't you come with me? I have something I want to show you."

"Fine," Selina said after a moment and turned away from Aleksandr. "Whatever it is, lead the way."

Klaus took her hand and led her to a part of Elissavetta's house that she'd never been in before. He pulled a red velvet curtain aside and they went into a room with wood floors and walls covered in all kinds of artwork.

"Oh, my god," Selina breathed. "Does your mother own all this?"

He grinned at her and nodded. He pulled her over to a Matisse, Vase, Bottle and Fruit. "Do you still feel the same about Matisse?" He asked her. "I believe you called him a glorified finger painter once."

Selina nodded. "I still would," she said. "I swear, if he'd called the painting something else, I never would know what was in it." She paused and walked down the side of the room to another painting. "I prefer this," she said. "Monet's Water-Lilies, Evening Effect. See? You can actually tell what the objects are in this picture. I swear, some people-" Her eye caught another picture in the opposite corner of the room. She grabbed Klaus' arm and pulled him along with her until she was standing in front of the picture of a man in a tricornered hat and gold coat holding a sword against the throat of the driver of a horse-drawn carriage. "It's an E. A. Berg," she said reverently "And not just any E. A. Berg. The Highwayman. Of the three paintings of his that exist, this is the rarest."

"What happened to all the rest of his work again?" Klaus asked. "I think you told me once."

"Oh," Selina's voice was quiet. "He got on the bad side of somebody and they destroyed it all, except for three paintings, The Highwayman, Independence Day, and Storming the Bastille."

Klaus came to stand behind Selina and she reached back and put her hand in his. He leaned forward and whispered in her ear. "And dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked
Where Tim the ostler listened; his face was white and peaked.
His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay,
But he loved the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's red-lipped daughter,
Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say, "One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize to-night,
But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;
Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
Then look for me by moonlight,
Watch for me by moonlight,
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way."

"Alfred Noyes," She said appreciatively. "I didn't know you'd read that."

She turned and put her arms around him, smiling up at him. "She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held good!
She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood!
They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like years,
Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,
Cold, on the stroke of midnight,
The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at least was hers! The tip of one finger touched it; she strove no more for the rest!
Up, she stood up to attention, with the barrel beneath her breast,
She would not risk their hearing; she would not strive again;
For the road lay bare in the moonlight;
Blank and bare in the moonlight;
And the blood of her veins in the moonlight throbbed to her love's refrain."

He grinned. They spoke the end together: "And still of a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees,
When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
A highwayman comes riding—
Riding—riding—
A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door. Over the cobbles he clatters and clangs in the dark inn-yard;
He taps with his whip on the shutters, but all is locked and barred;
He whistles a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair."

Then, she leaned forward and kissed him deeply. His hands moved down her back. She ran her fingers through his hair. Moaning, he pushed her against the wall, his hands sneaking under her shirt. But before anything could happen, they heard a knock on the wall of the room. "Here you two are!"

They pulled apart. Elissavetta was staring at them. "Oh," Selina flushed a little, stepping away from him. "Hi."

"Have either of you seen Susan?" Elissavetta asked. "I know Elijah couldn't be here, but I would have thought Susan would show up."

"Actually, Mother," Klaus said, "Susan won't be coming to this party or any other."

Elissavetta glared. "Why not?"

Selina slowly pushed Klaus away from her and said quietly, "Because I killed her."

"What?" Elissavetta asked.

"You heard me," Selina said. "I killed her."

"No, she didn't," Klaus said quickly. "Don't listen to her."

"Why not, Nicky?" Selina said. "It's the truth."

They stood in silence for a moment, and then Elissavetta pounced on her. "Why you little-" She threw Selina down on the hard wood floor of the gallery. Dazed, Selina tried to fight back, but she was basically useless. When Elissavetta broke one of her arms, the scream she screamed chilled Klaus' blood. He made an honest effort to pry his mother off her, but she threw him off easily, breaking Selina's other arm, so she screamed again. By then, footsteps were rapidly approaching the gallery. "What the hell is going on in here?" Adrian cried.

Klaus sat up. "Help your mother," he said.

Adrian turned just in time to see Elissavetta break one of Selina's legs. "No," he shook his head. "No." He pulled out the long, thick metal rod he'd meant to stab his uncle with, tapped his grandmother on the shoulder, and as she turned, he plunged the rod into her, nailing her to the floor as she let out an earsplitting shriek.

"Can you move?" Adrian asked, getting down next to his mother.

"No," she said quietly. "It hurts, Adrian."

"We'll get you out of here," he said.

She shook her head, wincing with pain. "Go and find Lucy. Give her to Anna and have her go to Damon's so Lucy and Sam can have their birthday party. I'll get out of here somehow." She began sobbing. "I hurt," she said again.

He nodded. "I bet you do." He looked at Helene. "Can you do something for her?" He asked.

Helene sighed. "If I had my powers, I'd gladly do something. But I can't." She looked at Klaus. "Could you compel her to sleep until you can get her home?"

Klaus crawled over next to Selina. "Sleep," he said to her. "You'll wake when I tell you."

Selina shut her eyes and grinned. "Thank you."

Adrian and Helene left the gallery with Klaus watching over Selina and to Damon's, but only after telling his uncle Aleksandr what happened.

"Should we take her to Elijah's?" Aleksandr asked Klaus when he arrived in the gallery.

Klaus nodded. They gently carried Selina to Klaus' car. He drove and Aleksandr sat in the back seat with Selina's head on his lap.

"What happened?" Elijah asked when he answered the door.

"Mother found out about what happened to Susan," Klaus said as he carried Selina to a room and tucked her in. "And when she asked us what happened, Selina said she was Susan's murderer and not me."

"No," Elijah said. "She didn't."

Klaus nodded and moved Selina's hair out of her face. "She saved me."

Elijah put his hand on Klaus' shoulder. "I just hope you realize how lucky you are," he said.

Just then, Elijah's phone rang. He went to answer it and came back to hand it to Klaus. "It's Adrian," he said. "He wants to talk to you."

Klaus took the phone. "Yes, son?" He asked.

"I want to avenge Mom," Adrian said. "Will you help me?"

*Klaus and Selina recite stanzas from "The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes.