"What are you doing?" Stefan asked as Anna arranged photos of Selina across the mantle.

"I'm helping," Anna said. "I'm disappointed in Elijah. He's so moral, he's making Selina repress a very important part of her life."

"You mean the Lonely Heart thing?" Stefan asked. "If she's not going to tell him about that, maybe we should."

Anna turned around quickly. "Oh, no you don't!" She said. "That's not our choice to make. She'll tell him eventually. And he'll accept it eventually. We just have to get him used to the idea of her having a darker past by first letting him see pictures of her when she was a bad ass, and then easing into her telling him the truth about her past."

"But why start now?" Stefan asked. "Why can't it wait?"

"Because Elijah is coming over in a few minutes," she said. "Apparently an old girlfriend of his showed up early this morning. Climbed right through his bedroom and everything."

Stefan scoffed. "Is she insane or what?"

Anna grinned. "We didn't call her Crazy Mary Porter behind her back for nothing."

Just then, they heard a knock on the door, and Anna went to answer it. "Hello," she said as Elijah stepped inside. "Can I get you anything? If you're thirsty, I've got a nice young man downstairs, or I suppose I could go out in the woods and find a squirrel."

Elijah frowned. "No, thank you," he said. "I just came by for a minute. I'm concerned about Mary."

"Every one of us was concerned about Mary," Anna said. "And yet you dated her anyway."

"Well, she seemed normal at the time," he said. "It was only after I ended things that she lost her mind."

Anna smirked. "Well there was a lot you didn't see then," she said. "A lot you didn't see. Like that time she mutiliated all the cattle at that farm and everyone thought it was because of aliens, and the time that she kidnapped her old boyfriend so she could take some of his blood and wear it on a chain around her neck? Well, that's not the craziest example, but she made a necklace out of another guy's ear! And those creepy porcelain dolls she talked to like they were people!" Anna shuddered.

"Anyway," Elijah said, "What am I going to do with her? I can't keep her in my house. Selina wouldn't stand for it and it would be an awful idea to have her around Lucy."

"I don't even see why you're letting her stay at all," Anna said. "Just tell her to go away."

"Oh, I can't tell her to go away," Elijah said. "That will make her angry and she behaves worse when she's angry."

"So how about we have a dinner or something to make her think we want her here more than anything, get her drunk and then kill her?" Anna asked. "We could do that."

"That seems underhanded, Anna," Elijah said.

"She broke into your house at two in the morning and you're freaked out that she's going to hurt Lucy!" Anna said. "It's okay to defend yourself from that sort of threat! Nobody would be mad at you. Where is she now?"

"Mary? I asked Niklaus what he thought I should do with her and he suggested having her visit Selina's friend Olivia. I had no idea they knew one another."

Anna shrugged. "I didn't know that either. If you'd asked me, I would have suggested taking her to the nearest asylum.

Elijah sighed. "But she can only stay at Olivia's so long before she'll get bored and want to come back."

"How about you find some way to distract Selina besides telling her about the party and I'll deal with Mary and Olivia?" Anna asked.

"All right," Elijah said. "Just be careful. I don't have to remind you of who you're dealing with."

"And I'll call Nick and tell him about the party," Stefan said. "I don't think either one of us will want to miss a moment of it."

"I think Lucy should start learning how to swim," Elijah said as he watched Selina and Lucy play peekaboo. "It would be good for her."

Selina looked up at him. "I don't know about that," she said.

"Why?" Elijah asked. "You can help me. We can teach her together. It'll be fun!"

"No, it won't!" Selina shook her head. "It won't be fun if I drown first. I can't swim all that well. Mama never thought I should learn."

"All right," Elijah said. "I'll teach both of you. Finish playing, get Lucy in a bathing suit, and we'll go find a pool."

"All right," Elijah said. He was standing on the edge of a pool with Lucy and Selina on either side of him. "Let's get in."

"No," Selina shook her head. "I don't want to."

Elijah put his arms around her. "You don't have to yet. Just stick your legs in the water, then." She did and Elijah dropped into the water and held his arms out to Lucy, who was wearing a pink bathing suit and floaties on her arms. She grinned and took a running leap into the water. Elijah caught her and held on to her. "Can you blow bubbles for me?" Elijah asked her. "I've got you. Just stick your head under the water and blow bubbles." Lucy did so, enthusiastically. Then, Elijah placed Lucy in a round inner tube, and got out and put his arms around Selina whose eyes were shut tight. "It's all right," he said. "Lucy's out of the water now. Nothing will happen to her."

Selina laughed a little and a few tears fell from her eyes. "Sorry," she said. "I know I'm being ridiculous. I know Lucy will be safe with you. I always have been." She reached up to wipe the tears from her eyes and Elijah gently took hold of her wrist. "Don't," he said. "Please let me." He went and kneeled next to small black carrying case and slowly pulled out a light blue handkerchief. "Here," he said, coming back and wiping the tears out of her eyes. Once they were gone, he grinned. "There," he said. "That's better."

"Oh, my god," Selina said, taking the handkerchief from him. "You still have this? I would have thought you'd gotten rid of it years ago."

"Why would I?" He asked. "Those were some of the best days of my life."

Selina grinned. "You're so sweet. You were a good influence on me," she said. "I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't saved my life."

They sat in silence a moment, then looked down at Lucy who was starting to drift away from the edge. Elijah got back in the water and after taking a deep breath, Selina dove in after him, her previous fears forgotten. She stayed upbeat until, as they left the pool, Elijah told her about the party that Anna wanted to have with Mary and the others. Then she sobered and said, "When is it? I better have time to bake something."

Elijah nodded. "I think you have time. I promise you you do."

"I smell cake."

Selina gave the chocolated frosting a good stir and then turned around to face Elijah. "Yeah," she nodded. "I'm making one for that little meet and greet Anna insisted we have with Mary."

"About that," Elijah said, "You really don't have to do this if you don't want to."

Selina sighed. "It's okay, really. I'll be fine. But here's your end of the deal: I had to leave Lucy at Damon's since Stefan and Anna will be at the party too, and you aren't allowed to complain about it."

Elijah sighed. "Fine. I'll behave myself if hedoes."

Selina rolled her eyes. "What is going on in your head in regards to the two of them? You'll have to tell me some time." She went over to the cupboard and stood underneath it. "Could you reach?" She asked him. "I need the powdered sugar."

"Of course," he said. He came up behind her and held onto her waist so he wouldn't squish her against the counter and then reached up and grabbed the bag of powdered sugar. As he let her go and handed it to her, she let out her breath. "Thank you," she said. She stirred some powdered sugar into the frosting and put some on her finger to give it a taste. Then she looked up at Elijah and put some more on her finger, holding it out to him. "Want to give it a try and see what you think?"

Elijah grinned and took her hand, inserting her finger into his mouth and slowly sucking the frosting off. Then, Selina stuck her hand in the bowl again and got some more frosting, putting it on her neck. Elijah took her in his arms and slowly licked the frosting off her neck and then the licks turned into kisses as he backed her against the dishwasher, his hand creeping under her shirt and over her stomach.

She put a hand under his chin and brought his lips up to meet hers for a long moment before reluctantly pulling away. "We have to stop," she said. "I have to frost the cake and then put it the refrigerator so it can set."

"Well, all right," Elijah said. "But hurry up, please."

He stood behind her and watched her frost the cake and then snatched off the counter once it was frosted, practically throwing it in the refrigerator before he picked her and up and carried her off to their room where they occupied themselves until Anna came and picked them up for the party.

"So remind me again why it's not at your house?" Selina asked Anna. She sat in the back between Klaus and Elijah with the cake resting on her knees.

Anna looked behind her from the passenger's seat next to Stefan, who was driving. "I don't know," she said. "Mary just said she wanted to host us and frankly the idea scares the hell out of me."

"Why?" Selina asked.

Anna sighed. "Oh, you'll see."

When she heard that, Selina took one hand off the cake and put it in Elijah's. He squeezed back and the warmth of his fingers was reassuring to her.

When they reached the house where Mary was apparently staying, they went to knock on the door and found that it wasn't locked. They stepped inside, into a room of almost total darkness. They wandered around aimlessly, calling Mary's name but getting no response. Finally, they found her in a pink- painted room that resembled Lucy's. She was on her knees in front of a low table, set with small, delicate play china patterned with pink roses. Several china dolls with missing eyes and cracked faces sat around the table as well.

"Lovely to have you here today, Miss Edith," Mary was saying to one of the dolls. "How was your time on the continent?"

The next moment, she spoke in a high chirpy voice. "Very well, thank you, Mary. The weather in London was so wet and dreary and it was pretty cold most of the time, but otherwise pretty nice."

"Would you like some more tea?" Mary asked the doll.

Just then, Anna cleared her throat. "Hi, Mary," she said quietly. "We made it."

Mary looked at them, nonplussed. "You're late," she said, eyes narrowed. "Miss Edith and I have been waiting and waiting. I had to invite a whole bunch of other people so that my table wouldn't be put completely out."

"Well, we're sorry," Selina said. "But we had to wait for the cake to cool, and-"

Mary smiled. "You have cake? Come and sit! Miss Edith loves cake!"

After a reassuring glance from Elijah, Selina nervously approached the table and took a seat next to a doll with long dark brown hair, an elaborate red dress, and one blue eye. She assumed this was Miss Edith.

"Give Miss Edith some cake!" Mary ordered.

Selina cut the doll a slice of cake and put it on the plate in front of her.

"Where do we all sit?" Elijah asked after a moment.

"Oh, there's no room for you," Mary said. "Go away."

Reluctantly, they left the room and Selina and Mary sat staring at one another. Finally, Mary said, "Would you like some tea?"

Selina nodded. "Well, sure. Thank you." She cut herself a slice of cake and gave Mary one too. Then Mary poured tea for both of them, but when Selina drank it, her throat and mouth began to burn. Mary took the teapot and dumped the rest of it on Selina's bare skin. "Vervain!" Selina whispered, coughing. "Vervain!"

Mary cackled and dumped what tea remained, even though it sizzled on her skin. The sizzling only made her laugh harder.

Selina finally found it in herself to scream, and at the same moment, Elijah burst in the door, picked her up and carried her out. They put Selina in the car and drove as fast as they possibly could.

"You liked her even in the twenties, didn't you?" Anna asked Elijah as she watched him study the photos of Selina. Selina herself was back at home recovering from her encounter with the vervain spiked tea.

Elijah shook his head. "No, I found her self absorbed, wicked, and childish. I would never like someone like that."

"But weren't you a little intrigued?" Anna pressed. "At the idea of taking a wicked, childish woman and making her a better person? Oh, come on. Don't tell me you never wanted to take on that challenge." She sobered when she noticed Elijah wasn't paying attention to her anymore. "Elijah?" She repeated. "Elijah, what's going on in your head?"

But Elijah didn't hear her. His mind was somewhere else. She was right. He had been intrigued by the idea of taking Selina and making something out of her. And he'd done it, too. And then afterwards, made a decision he'd regretted for years.

It had happened in late October, just after the papers in Paris annouced that the American stock market had crashed. Underneath the headline announcing the crash was another headline, about a young woman and her husband, who had been murdered horribly on their honeymoon near the Eiffel tower.

He'd read the news of the deaths with shock. Similar murders had happened off and on for the past ten years. Each one done by someone the papers called Lonely Heart.

"She's dangerous," his father had told him. "One of these days, I'm going to find her and put an end to her activities. If I let this go on, our kind will be exposed and more of us will die."

"Are you certain it's a vampire committing these murders?" Elijah had asked his father. "Humans can kill just as brutally."

Mikael shook his head. "No, it's a vampire," he said. "And a sneaky one. But women always are. Slyly committing misdeeds under our noses and thinking we don't suspect a thing. I mean, think about your mother. Think about what she did."

"Does that have anything to do with what's going on now?" Elijah asked him.

Mikael shook his head. "Of course not, you're right." He paused. "You go home now," he said. "We'll continue our work tomorrow. She's getting sloppy. I think I know where she lives. We'll get her and take her away."

Elijah nodded, told his father goodbye, and then got in a taxi and went back to his house. He was just settling in to read when he heard a terrible racket from the house next door, which just happened to belong to Niklaus. Elijah got up from his chair and went to look out the window. He could see into the other house's kitchen from there and as he looked out, he saw that the curtains on kitchen windows were closed. However, he could make out Sera's silhouette against the curtains, along with that of someone who was much bigger and broader than she was. She screamed again, and then Elijah, brought back to his senses, ran out of the house to help her.

The scene that met his eyes when he reached the kitchen was something he knew he'd never forget. There was blood everywhere. A woman lay on the floor, her neck cut open nearly to the bone. Sera was tussling with the man and managed to knock him to the floor, putting her hand around his throat. "I'll teach you to come in here again!" She said. "You'll be sorry you came back here, but you won't have the breath to say it!"

"Sera?" Elijah asked, tentatively touching her on her shoulder. "What happened here? Are you all right?"

Her back was to him, but after he removed his hand from her shoulder, she slowly turned. He gasped. Her face and hands were covered in blood, which was also matted in her blonde hair. She stared at him for a few seconds and then broke down. "I'm sorry," she said. "I'm sorry. It's just that I've really been on edge these last few days and-I'm scared half to death!"

"Why?" Elijah asked.

She sniffled. "There's a man who keeps following me around," she said. "I've had to move around so often. Just when I think I'm safe, he shows up again. I think he knows who I am and wants to kill me." She looked around. "That's why I killed these two," she said. "I thought one of them was him. I know I should have been more cautious because that's what we talked about, but I just-I couldn't think, and-"

"This man who's following you, what does he look like?" Elijah asked.

Sera wiped tears from her eyes and put her arms around him. "Blond hair, blue eyes, bit of a beard, bit of a moustache..."

Elijah stiffened, his hand on her shoulder.

"What?" She asked. "What's the matter?"

"Come with me," he said. He led her next door and into his house, where he pulled out a picture of his father and showed it to her.

She gasped. "That's him!" She said. "That's the man who's been following me!"

Elijah put his hands firmly on her shoulders and looked into her eyes. "Are you absolutely certain?"

"Yes," Sera nodded and sniffled again. "I'd know him anywhere."

Just then, the front door of the house opened. "Elijah?" Klaus called. "Have you seen Sera? She's not at home."

"I have her here!" Elijah called back. "Niklaus, get in here!"

Klaus appeared a few seconds later. "Oh, my god," he said, looking at Sera from all angles. "What's happened to her?"

"Someone tried to get into your house," Elijah replied. "We don't know why, but Sera's killed both of them. And something else: she says my father is after her."

Klaus' head snapped up. "What?"

"He's been following me for the last ten years," Sera said. "Every time I get comfortable in a place, he shows up. If I wouldn't have run, he'd have killed me. And the other day, I thought I saw him in the park."

"But why would he want to come after Sera?" Klaus asked Elijah.

"Well, think of all the time you encouraged her to kill people," Elijah said to him. "It's not exactly the wisest thing to do if you want to stay hidden. Just the sort of thing to attract Father's attention, in fact."

"But she's just doing what comes natural to her," Klaus said. "I don't see why that upsets Mikael so much."

"The point is that it does," Elijah said. "And the murder of the couple by the Eiffel Tower got his attention. He thinks he knows where she lives and is going to come for her tomorrow. We don't have much time to get her out of here!"

Klaus nodded. "Bring her to the train station tonight," he said. "Anna, Sera and I will leave Paris and then Mikael won't be able to kill her."

Elijah nodded. "All right," he said.

Klaus left and Selina looked at Elijah urgently. "I don't want to go with Nicky," she said.

"What?" He asked. "Why not?"

"If I go with him, it'll just mean more running," she said. "He told me that your father has it in for him and Anna as well, so I wouldn't be any safter if I stayed with them. Elijah, I don't want to run anymore."

Elijah sighed and nodded, kissing her forehead. "Then you won't have to, Sera. I promise you that."

At half past midnight, Sera came downstairs and opened the front door of her house to find Elijah standing on the other side. "Nicky's gone out," she said. "He wanted one last drink with Stefan before we left town."

"Very convenient," Elijah said. "That way, we can leave without any complications. I bought a ticket for you on the S.S. New York. It'll get you back to America, safe and sound."

"But aren't you coming with me?" She asked. "Didn't you buy a ticket for yourself?"

Elijah shook his head. "I can't," he said. "No matter how much I'd like to. My father can't know that I'm helping you. He would think I'm a traitor if he knew that, as bad as Niklaus, even if his suspicions that you're Lonely Heart are absolutely ridiculous. The point is that he thinks he's correct and won't be convinced otherwise, so I have to send you on your way alone. You can do it. You're a brave woman."

"I can," she said. "But I don't want to. I don't want to be alone anymore remembering you and all you've done for me. Make me forget. It would be kindest."

He shook his head. "I wouldn't do that to you," he said. "Take away the few good memories you have. It's too cruel."

He helped her into her car and they drove away from the house.

"We have to stop by the train station first," she said. "Is there time?"

"Well, yes," Elijah said. "You haven't changed your mind, have you?"

"No," Sera shook her head, taking an envelope out of her purse. "I wrote Nicky a note, explaining why I can't go with him. I want to give it to the station master so Nicky will get it before the train arrives."

Elijah nodded and they headed for the train station. Sera gave up her note and then they left for the docks. She stared at the boat and took a deep breath. "Here," she said, taking a light blue handkerchief out of her purse. "Take this to remember me by, please."

He nodded and tucked it into his jacket pocket, watching as she unsteadily climbed the gangplank, her body wracked with sobs. When she was safely aboard, she leaned against the railing and waved goodbye until the boat disappeared into the fog and he could no longer see her.

"Elijah!" Anna's voice sounded harsh and broke into his consciousness with surprising abruptness.

"What?" He asked.

"I've been yelling at you for five minutes!" She said. "What's the matter with you?"

He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled the handkerchief out, slowly brushing it against his cheek. "I have to go," he said.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"I can't explain," he said. "I'll call you tomorrow. Right now, you'll just have to excuse me." He got up and left the house, leaving a very confused Anna alone in the living room.

Elijah drove to Klaus' house and rang the doorbell. When Klaus answered, he said, "May I come in? I have something I need to tell you."

"Sure," Klaus nodded. "What is it?"

He led him to the living room and looked at him expectantly.

"This isn't easy for me to say," Elijah got out. "But I feel it's only right I let you know. I'm the reason why Selina didn't meet you at the train station in Paris," he said. "The night you made the plans to leave with her, after you left, she told me that she didn't want to run from Father anymore, so I got her a ticket on a ship to America instead. I'm sorry it took me so long to tell you, but if I had, you would have just insisted that she stay with you and I had to do what was best for her. I hope you understand and I'm sorry it took me this long to tell you the truth."