Selina slammed the bear's torso down on the laundry room floor. "I shouldn't have left," she said. "Sammy's sick with chicken pox and I left him just because Wendy was there and she told me everything would be all right. But what the hell does she know, and where does she get off hijacking my kid like that?"

"I'm sure she didn't mean it like that," Elijah said. "I'm sure she meant to be helpful, to give you a break."

Selina glared at him. "I don't need a break, all right? I need to raise my son without help from anybody else. Especially not stupid, human Wendy!"

"Have you been drinking Niklaus' blood again?" Elijah asked her. "You're not acting like yourself."

"Are you saying I don't have the right to be angry about stuff?" Selina asked, pushing a strand of black hair out of her eyes. "Are you saying that I have to be sweet and good and motherly all the time so you can maintain that fiction you have in your head of me as some precious, innocent angel in distress whose problems only you can fix?" She shook her head. "Clip my wings and toss out my halo because this is my problem and I'm going to handle it myself!"

"Now wait just a minute," Elijah said. "I won't have you just stomp out of here and get Sam when you're not well."

She struggled to free herself from his grip. "Let me go!" she growled. "This is none of your business!"

"Of course it is!" Elijah said. "If you're going to do something that will end up getting you or someone else hurt. Stay here until you've calmed down. Don't do something that you'll regret later just because you're angry now."

"Why would I regret bringing Sam back here so I can take care of him until he gets better?" Selina asked.

"Well, I was more referring to Wendy, whoever she is," Elijah said. "I have a feeling that you might harm her."

Selina shrugged. "Only if she gets in my way. If she doesn't, she'll be fine. Now, please just let me go."

He let go of her and she rubbed her shoulder and looked at him reproachfully. "Thank you," she said.

"You stay right there," Elijah said. "I have to go make a phone call, and once I get back then we'll go."

"Who says I want you to come with me?" Selina asked. "I'm perfectly capable of going by myself."

"I realize that, but the only way you're going is if I or someone else come with you. No arguments."

"I hate you!" Selina called after him as Elijah disappeared into the kitchen and dialed Stefan and Anna's number.

"What's going on here?" Stefan asked when he arrived a few minutes later to find Elijah and Selina standing on the kitchen. Selina had her arms crossed and was wearing a sour expression. "Anna and I were in the middle of something."

"Nothing that you can't delay for a few hours," Elijah said. "This is more important than whatever it is you have in mind."

"Well, what is it, then?" Stefan asked.

"It's nothing," Selina said quickly. "Sorry Elijah made you come down here for no reason, Stefan."

Stefan grinned. "You're in a mood. What's going on?"

Selina shook her head. "It's not anything. Sam has the chicken pox and I want to bring him back here so I can take care of him, but Elijah doesn't trust me to do it on my own. Says I'm 'not well'. But really, he has no reason to think that."

"I do," Elijah said. "Wendy. We can't have you hurting humans. We can't afford that."

Stefan nodded. "Oh, so you have met Wendy. She's a real peach, isn't she? What did she do to piss you off?"

Selina frowned. "She insinuated that I wasn't capable of taking care of my own son." Her lip curled. "I don't see how she could do any better. But she was all 'oh, that's okay. My stupid daughter Allison just had the chicken pox, so I can take care of Sam and you can go on your merry way'."

"You're taking liberties with her speech, I assume," Elijah said. "I doubt she would call her own daughter 'stupid'."

"That's not the point!" Selina snapped. "Why doesn't anyone think that I'm capable of taking care of my own kids? Why is it that whenever I have a kid with Damon, somebody else gets to watch them and I don't?"

Stefan nodded knowingly. "I thought this had something to do with Joshua. I was there when you flipped out at his grave, remember?"

"Well, can you blame me?" Selina asked. "Did you see what those kids were doing?"

"What were they doing?" Elijah asked.

"They were defacing his grave," Selina said. "I killed them all. Well, I let two go, but I wiped their memories. And I killed the rest."

Elijah's eyes widened. "See? This is exactly why I don't want you going to see Wendy alone."

"Well I'm not because Stefan's here. So can we go now?" Selina asked.

Elijah nodded and the three of them headed back to Damon's.

"Back so soon?" Wendy asked when she opened the door and saw Selina. "I told you I'd be more than happy to take care of Sam so you wouldn't have to."

Elijah placed a hand on Selina's shoulder and whispered in her ear. "Stay calm, please," he said. "Be polite. If you make her mad, she could make sure you never see Sam again."

Selina's smile was painful, but she grinned and locked eyes with Wendy. "I know you told me that, and I appreciate it, but I really think I'd like to take care of Sam, if you don't mind."

"Well, I do, actually," Wendy said. "You don't seem stable to me. And I don't want Sam to go and be in a place where he'll be hurt."

"Oh, she'd never hurt Sam," Stefan said. "She's his mother and she loves him. But if you don't let her in and give her her kid, you'll be in a place where you'll be hurt. Now let us in."

Eyes widening, Wendy opened the door and Selina, Stefan and Elijah went into the house.

"That was underhanded," Elijah said to Stefan. "And something Anna will be more than pleased to hear about, although she won't be happy that she wasn't here to witness it."

"Damon!" Wendy called. "Selina's here. She wants to take Sam back!"

"Do you really?" Damon asked when he appeared a few minutes later. "Selina, I don't know if it would be a good idea to move him. He's got a fever now and he's fussing a lot. Why don't you just stay here?"

"All right," Selina nodded. "I'll stay here."

Damon looked at Elijah. "Is that all right with you?"

He nodded. "I already told her it was."

Selina swallowed. "I'll just go pack a few things. And I have to run some errands. But I should be back by tonight."

"Have you tried to do any magic since you came back?" Adrian asked Helene. "Serious magic, I mean. I know you did that spell that made those star stickers become all 3-D and dance around after you and Lucy stuck them on the ceiling, but have you tried any serious spells?"

Helene sighed. "No, and I don't know if I should, really. I mean, after you get in trouble once with the witch powers that be, it makes you more cautious."

"Oh, come on," Adrian said. "Playing it safe is just about the most dangerous thing a woman like you could do. Do something big for me. Give it a shot."

"Well, okay," Helene said. "But if the house falls apart or you disappear or something, don't blame me. Hazel's dad could have tampered with my magic when he let me stay. That's what I'm worried about. I mean, what if he made me like Cassandra in Greek mythology? Apollo loved her and gave her the gift of prophecy, but when she pissed him off, he made it so her gift was basically useless. No one believed a word she said. The Trojan horse was brought into the city limits. What if my magic comes out wrong?"

He kissed her hand. "Well, you'll never know until you try, will you?"

Helene shut her eyes. "Oh, all right. But what should I do?" Before she could decide, however, they heard their front doorbell ring and Rusty's loud barking.

Adrian went to answer the door and Helene picked Rusty up and moved him to the living room.

"Mom?" Adrian asked once the door was open. "What brings you here?" He let her inside and motioned at the sofa. "Want a drink?" He asked. "We have pop."

Selina nodded. "Coke, please."

Once he'd headed for the kitchen, Selina motioned to Helene. "What is it?" Helene asked. "Is something wrong?"

Selina shook her head. "Not wrong exactly, but Sam got the chicken pox and Damon doesn't want to move him from his house to Elijah's, so we figured that the best thing to do would be for me to go and stay with Damon until Sam gets better."

"I hope you told Uncle Elijah," Adrian said. "Because if you made a plan like that behind his back, he won't be happy."

"Of course I told Elijah about the plan!" Selina snapped. "Why do you think I wouldn't?"

"Why are you telling me this?" Helene asked.

"I'm a little nervous about spending so much time alone with Damon," Selina said. "He still has very obvious feelings for me and I'm afraid that by spending so much time with him, my feelings will come back too. Especially because I found a picture of the kid he and I had before we both became vampires, which is making me long for warm fuzzy family feelings and I'm all vulnerable and ripe for the picking. Can you do anything that will strengthen my resolve?"

"Well, there might be one thing," Helene said. "But I don't know if you'd like it. Come on, though. You don't need magic to deal with this! You're strong, you're tough! You can handle your ex-husband without any magical help. Just try it."

Selina stood up. "Fine." She said. "Fine, I'll spend all that time with Damon and do my best to ignore it when he walks around the house naked on purpose just to irritate me."

"Remember that Dad used to do that to, and you got through it," Adrian told her. "This is the same thing."

Selina smirked. 'Used to?' Please, if I went over to his house today and he knew it was me on the other side of the door, he'd probably answer it naked just to see what I would do." She walked to the front door with Rusty at her heels and left the house.

"You should do that spell for Mom," Adrian told Helene as soon as Selina was gone. "It could be the thing you need to prove you can still do big magic!"

"Wow, sacrificing your mother. I don't know if I should be impressed or disgusted," Helene said. "You don't even know what the spell does."

"Well, what does it do?" Adrian asked.

"Have you ever heard of a movie called The Family Man?" Helene asked. When he shook his head, she said, "It's basically about this guy who gets an opportunity to find out what his life would have been like if he'd married his college girlfriend instead of going to England and then becoming a banker. The spell would do the same sort of thing for your Mom. She'd be able to see what her life would have been like if she and Damon would have gotten back together right after they became vampires."

"How is that supposed to help Mom?" Adrian asked. "What if she likes what she sees and wants to stay?"

"I don't think she will," Helene said. "She'll be bereft of her children, her good friends, everything that makes her life exciting. All it will do is get rid of her infatuation with Damon and make it so that the two of them stay friends. Are you okay with that?.

Adrian nodded. "You seem pretty sure of yourself all of a can do this!" He said. "You're strong, you're tough, and you're a good witch!"

"Fine," Helene said. "I'll do it. You've convinced me! I just have to get a few things first."

"I can't believe you're letting her stay here!" Wendy told Damon. "She's dangerous! You told me the first time I met her that she had a drug problem! Or was it an alcohol problem?"

"Oh, I can't remember," Damon said. "But that was before you told me that Bram Stoker was your great-great uncle and you have a bit of a vampire fixation. Then what did I tell you?"

Wendy's eyes widened. "So Selina's a vampire too? Just like you?"

Damon nodded. "Yep. And she's got a bit of werewolf in her too, long story there, too little time to tell you, and even if there was time, I think you should hear it from Selina, not me. Besides, she's coming strictly to help me take care of Sam. Nothing other than that will go on."

"Did you think I was worried about that?" Wendy asked. "Because I'm not. Or should I be?"

Damon shook his head. "Oh, no. She'd put the kibosh on anything I tried. Right now she's in a committed relationship with her ex-brother-in-law." He rolled his eyes.

Wendy grinned. "Is she really? Well, we'll have to have them over sometime. Now I guess if you have things under control here, I'll go home and let my sitter off the hook. Do you still need a ride to the meeting tomorrow?"

"Yeah," Damon nodded. "My car's on the fritz. See you around three?"

"Of course." Wendy left the house and as soon as she was gone, Sam started crying. Damon sat down on the sofa, took a deep breath, rubbed his temples and went to Sam's room, knowing he'd be counting the minutes until Selina came back to relieve him, even if it was just for a little while.

Selina wasn't really relishing her next errand: going to see Klaus to tell him that she'd be spending the night with Damon. But she had to do it because she knew he was still watching Lucy. But as she drove toward the house, her cell phone rang.

"Hello?" She said hesitantly. She didn't recognize the number.

"Selina, it's your father. Can we meet? I have to talk to you about something."

"Sure, Daddy," Selina said. "Where are you?"

"At our house," he said. "You know the one I'm talking about. Come right away, please."

Selina said, "I'm heading in that direction right now."

When she reached her parents' house, her father met her at the door. "Thank you for coming," he said. Matthew Warren gave his daughter an appraising look. "Are you all right?" He asked. "You seem upset."

Selina shook her head. "I'm not. I just have to run an errand that I'm really not looking forward to and my son has the chicken pox. That's all. Now what's on your mind?"

"Well, I just thought you should know that your mother invited Caroline Forbes to move in here with us," he said. "I mean, I know that you and your mother don't get along, and that Caroline and I had some past history that you weren't happy about when you first found out, but rest assured that unlike your mother, I won't just toss you aside like a used napkin just because-"

"Hold on a minute!" Selina said. "What are you saying? Mama and Caroline are bonding?"

Matthew was looking sorrowful. "I'm ashamed to say that I think your mother has given up on you, Selina Amelia Elizabeth. She and her friends are going on some silly shopping date and they invited Caroline to come with them when they should have invited you."

Selina shook her head. "Oh, no, Daddy. It's perfectly all right with me that they invited Caroline to go shopping but left me out. I really don't like traipsing around the mall anyway. I'm not mad, I swear. Now as for you and Caroline, what happened there? We never really discussed it."

Matthew shook his head. "There's not much to discuss. Until your mother and I got back together, I still came back to town once a year like I did when you were little and I made friends with the current generation of founding families, especially the Forbes family because Lousia's older brother and I were such good friends. I had to compel the adults to let me stay, I'm ashamed to admit, but Caroline took a liking to me, and asked me to that dance that you saw us at. I told her yes, as you well know, but also made it clear that there would never be anything between us because I loved your mother. That was Caroline's and my entire relationship. I was never actually more to her than a family friend. I swear."

Just then, the front door opened and Amelia called out, "Matthew, what is that strange car doing in our driveway? I hope you didn't invite your drinking buddies over to-" She saw Selina sitting at the kitche table and froze. "Oh, my god. Selina, when did you get here?"

"Just a little while ago," Selina said. "Daddy told me about how you invited Caroline on a shopping date with some of your friends."

"I would have invited you," Amelia said. "But I know how much you hate being seen with me."

Selina shook her head. "It's not that I don't like being seen with you. It's just that you and I have very different ideas about what fun is, and they don't exactly mesh. You do tea parties, fashion shows and shopping and I play sports, read and gamble occasionally. It's neither your fault nor mine. It's just the way things are."

"Where do you want me to put the stuff, Amelia?" Caroline asked before Amelia could respond.

"Over there on the chair, dear," Amelia said. Caroline set two bags of what looked like party decorations down on a chair and then Selina ran over to hug her, practically knocking her down. "Thank you," Selina breathed.

"For what?" Caroline asked. "What did I do?"

"You finally got my mother off my back!" Selina said happily when she pulled away. "Her whole life my mother has wanted a social butterfly daughter and was stuck with me. Now she has you to do all the girly stuff with and I don't have to deal with it anymore! You may have just salvaged our entire relationship, Caroline. Thank you!"

"Anything I can do to help," Caroline said, taking a deep breath.

"Are you going to see Nicky tonight?" Selina asked. "Did he ask you out again?"

Caroline shook her head. "No, not in the next couple of days anyway. Why?"

"Well, and I know this is going to sound a little cowardly, but I'm spending the night at Damon's because our son Sam has the chicken pox and since Nicky still has Lucy, I want to let him know that in case some sort of emergency crops up, but I want to avoid going to his house if possible because I just know he'll try and pull something if he sees me to get me into bed or something, so could you go over to his house and tell him? Or would you come with me and be a distraction? Please?"

Caroline looked at her oddly for a moment then sighed. "All right," she said. "Let's go."

"I don't see what you're so nervous about," Caroline said. "He's your ex-husband. You were married to him for awhile. You should be able to deal with him."

Selina stood beside her, muttering what she was going to tell Klaus about Lucy under her breath so he wouldn't be able to distract her. Caroline rolled her eyes and knocked on the door and when it opened, Selina looked up and began talking in a rush: "Nicky, I only came to tell you that I'm spending the night at Damon's because Sam is sick and I wanted you to be able to reach me if something happened with Lucy. I didn't come here because I wanted to get in bed with you or whatever, so get that idea out of your head."

"You know, you could have just called and saved yourself from having to recite that speech." She blinked. Alistair was smirking at her.

"Alistair!" She hugged him tight. "Thank god it's you! Okay, so you heard what I said, right? Staying at Damon's because Sam has the chicken pox, and that's where he can reach me if he has a problem with Lucy."

"Where can I reach you if I have a problem with Lucy?" Klaus asked, coming to stand next to Alistair.

"I'm going to be at Damon's, taking care of Sam," Selina repeated. "He has the chicken pox."

"So Elijah's going to be all by himself, then?" Klaus asked. "What a lucky break. Finally some time for me to bond with my brother. I'm sure he won't mind having me and Lucy over for the night even though I'm not as pretty or as entertaining as you." He boldly looked Selina up and down.

Selina felt herself flushing.

"Well, I think you're pretty entertaining," Caroline said. "That story you told about spending time with Edvard Munch right before he painted The Scream, that was something."

Klaus grinned and nodded. "Oh, Munch was a troubled man. The story I told you was a tad inaccurate, though. I met him when he made his first American art exhibition in New York in 1909. He was a habitual drinker, but his doctor had advised him to stay away from alchol during the exhibit. Of course I didn't know that when I invited him out for a few rounds of scotch and then made him sit down at the piano and sing the latest tunes from Broadway. He was actually a very good singer."

"Well, I'd love to stay and chat," Selina said, "But I have things to do and small children to take care of, so...goodbye!"

As she started to make her way down the front steps, she heard a small voice say "Mama!" She turned around and saw Lucy peering at her from behind Klaus' leg.

"Hi, Lucy-loo," she said. She picked Lucy up and gave her a hug before putting her down again. "I should be getting to Damon's now, I think," she said. "Again, goodbye."

She shut her car door just as Alistair invited Caroline in for a drink and drove away.

"I'm so glad you're here!" Damon said, pulling Selina into the house. "Sam's been screaming for what seems like hours and I put lotion on him and did all that and he won't stop."

She followed him into Sam's room. Sam was on his knees in his crib and wearing only a diaper. His face was red and he was screaming his head off.

"Oh, it'll be all right," Selina said, picking him up and cuddling him. Even so, it took a little while to quiet him.

"I know this is going to sound bad," Damon said. "But part of me wishes that Mary Poppins or somebody like that would show up and make Sam's chicken pox disappear."

"Well, things don't work that way," Selina said. "We're capable people. We can handle this."

Just then, the doorbell rang. "I'll stay here with Sam," Selina said. "You go answer the door."

Damon nodded, and when he opened the door, he found a woman with long dark hair and dark eyes standing on the other side, grinning at him.

"Hello," she said, holding out her hand for him to shake. "My name's Helene, and I've been given to understand that you have a sick child in this house?"

Damon nodded. "Yeah, we do. Chicken pox. And neither his mother nor I have any idea what we're doing."

Helene nodded satisfactorily. "I came to the right place then. You look like you could use a rest. How about you give the boy over to me for the night and I'll take care of him while you and your wife take a break?"

"Just a minute," Damon said. He went back to Sam's room. "There's a woman named Helene outside that says she'll take care of Sam while you and I 'take a break'. It's odd. I wish for someone to show up and help take care of Sam and then she does. It's like magic or something."

Selina handed Sam to Damon and went to the front door to find Helene who was still standing on the steps. "I came to do that spell for you," Helene said to her. "The spell that will make you resistant to Damon. Only problem is, you won't be in this place once it's cast, so I thought it would be best to get Sam out of the way first."

Selina nodded. "Good thinking. Does Adrian know about this? Does he know he'll be playing host to a kid?"

"Yeah," Helene nodded. "In fact, this whole thing was his idea! Now, you go get Sam and I'll cast the spell and then he and I will be on our way."

Selina went and told Damon that Helene was reputable, then she and Sam left and Damon and Selina watched movies unil midnight. Then, she yawned and went to dress for bed, tucking herself into her own bed, while Damon tucked himself into his own bed. Which was why it was all the more surprising that the next thing she saw was Damon grinning in the bed beside her and sunlight trickling through large window in a master bedroom.

"Morning, sweetheart!" He said, brushing hair out of her eyes. "How'd you sleep last night?"