Klaus growled and grabbed Elijah by the throat and shoved him against the wall. "Thank you for being honest with me," he said. "But don't you wish you hadn't?"

Elijah growled and shoved Klaus away. "What is going on with you, Niklaus? What have I done to deserve your anger?"

Klaus smirked. "You're asking me that after a declaration like the one you just made? You're more of a fool than I thought."

"I didn't do anything wrong back then," Elijah said. "Selina told me after you left that she didn't want to run any more. She was terrified. I wanted to get her out of harm's way. If you cared about her as much as you claim you did back then, you'd want her to be safe as well."

"I could have kept her out of harm's way!" Klaus said. "I would have!"

Elijah shook his head. He felt ill. "No, you wouldn't have," he said. "Because you didn't care about her. Not like I did. You would have just encouraged her to keep killing. Why would you do that, Niklaus? Was it because Father was after you and Anna as well? Did you see Selina as a bargaining tool? Did you think that if you got Selina to kill enough, then you could hand her over to Father in exchange for Anna's and your safety?"

Klaus slammed Elijah against the wall again. "It's a sound theory, but no. Selina was the doppleganger, the only one left after I lost Katerina Petrova. What would I have gained from her being dead? What good would it have done me?"

"Do you ever think of anyone besides yourself, Niklaus?" Elijah asked. "I did. When I sent Selina away, I did what was best for her, not what was best for you or for me, even though I regretted it afterward."

"So you did love her?" Klaus asked. "Go on, say it!"

With a groan, Elijah managed to push Klaus against the opposite wall. "All right, Niklaus," he said. "I loved her then. Are you satisfied?"

Klaus began laughing. "I can't believe you thought more of your feelings for her than your feelings for your family. We've been down this road before, Elijah."

Elijah nodded. "We have, brother. But this time, things will end differently."

Klaus nodded. "Yes, they will. I will punish Selina for her role in tearing us apart, and then we'll be a family again, without her."

Elijah shook his head. "No, Niklaus. You will not lay a finger on her. I won't let you."

"I don't need your permission," Klaus said. He then pulled a dagger from behind his back and plunged it into Elijah's middle, watching as he dropped to the floor. "I'm sorry I had to do that, brother. I really am," he said. "But I have some unfinished business with your lady love and I can't have you getting in the way of it."

He then took out his phone, made a call, and left the house.

Aleksandr met Klaus at the bar door. "What did you want from me, Niklaus?"

"Well, why don't we sit and have a drink and I'll tell you," Klaus said.

They walked toward the table and when Klaus got a look at Aleksandr's dining companion, he was so shocked, he bumped into a waiter, causing a bowl of tomato soup on the tray he was carrying to spill all over Klaus' shirt, but he didn't care. After standing frozen a few minutes, he bounded over to the table.

"Mary Anne?" He asked the girl. "Is that you? It's been too long."

"It has, hasn't it?" She asked. "You never call, you never write, even though you could."

"I couldn't," he said, sitting down. "I don't know where you've been all these years."

"She's just been around," Aleksandr said. "I found her when I was walking in the park one day and took her under my wing. She did mention that the two of you knew each other."

Mary Anne nodded. "We did. Until he abandoned me. Probably something to do with Sera."

Klaus cleared his throat and looked at Aleksandr. "Speaking of her, I need some information from you," he said. "Did she ever tell you what her early vampire life was like?"

Aleksandr sighed. "Between floods of tears and bottle after bottle of whisky, she did tell me over the years. Several times, in fact. Apparently, the man who turned her, Doctor Stensrund, had been put under a spell by one Katherine Pierce and her maid Emily to confess his love to Selina and get her out of the way of Damon Salvatore so that Katherine could have him for herself. But what happened was, Doctor Stensrund, who was a vampire, ended up turning Selina. If that was the case, why did you still use her for your hybrids? I thought vampirism made that impossible."

Klaus nodded. "It would have. But Selina has the werewolf gene as well, remember? And if she gets bitten by a werewolf, it turns her human again instead of killing her. Something very handy to remember. Or it used to. Anyway, continue."

"Well," Aleksandr cleared his throat. "Apparently, Selina's early days as a vampire weren't good. Doctor Stensrund wanted her to be a strong, ruthless killer and would chain her in a chair in his attic for days at a time, and starve her, then bring men in from the street and have her kill them. And she'd do it because she was so hungry and had no other choice. It was very traumatizing for her."

Klaus' eyebrow went up. "Really?" He asked. "Is that so?"

"Yes," Aleksandr nodded. "I can't believe she didn't mention that once in all the years you've known her."

Klaus shrugged. "If she did, I don't remember it."

"Why do you want to know this?" Aleksandr asked, leaning forward.

"I'm just curious," Klaus replied. "You've been a big help." They got drinks and every time Aleksandr asked Klaus to elaborate on what he meant, he refused. After the drinks were finished, Klaus stood up and left the bar, giving Aleksandr a salute and Mary Anne a grin that she didn't return, then left the bar with a jaunty spring in his step, getting in his car and heading back home. He had a phone call to make.

"What are you doing, Alistair?" Klaus asked when he got in the house and found Alistair standing over Elijah's body.

Alistair just turned to face him. "What are you doing?" He asked, indicating Elijah's body. "What's the meaning of this?"

"I have something I need to do and he was going to stop me," Klaus said simply. "I will remove the dagger after I have finished."

"What is it that you need to do?" Alistair asked.

Klaus gave Alistair a look. "Elijah told me that he was the reason Selina didn't leave Paris with me. Did you know that?"

Alistair nodded. "Of course I did. I helped plan the whole thing. Are you going to kill me for that? It would be a mercy if you did."

"Which is exactly why I'm not going to," Klaus said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to call my darling ex-wife. I need to have a chat with her."

"Don't do anything stupid," Alistair said. "If you do, you'll regret it later."

Klaus smirked. "Oh, please. What could possibly happen to make me regret taking the vengeance I deserve?"

"I can't think of anything at the moment," Alistair replied. "But there has to be something."

"Go put my brother's body away," Klaus ordered. "I can't have it here. We need to make it seem as though everything is normal."

Alistair narrowed his eyes and sighed. "All right," he told him. "But you remember what I said, won't you?"

"Fine," Klaus said. "I will definitely take that under advisement." Once Alistair was gone, he muttered under his breath, "when hell freezes over."

"No, I don't have Lucy here with me," Selina said. "She's at Damon's. I dropped her off before we went over to Mary's. Do you want me to go get her?"

"No," Klaus said. "It's all right. Actually, what I wanted to make sure was that Lucy wasn't with you because I need you to come over to the house and pick something up. You have mostly recovered from the vervain, haven't you?"

Selina nodded. "Sure," she said. "I can move around. I'll be there in a few minutes."

She hung up the phone and drove to Klaus' house, but when she got there and went inside, everything was quiet.

"Nicky?" She called. "Are you here? Where's the thing you wanted me to pick up?"

"In our room," Klaus called back. "In the closet. Hurry up!"

"Oh, all right!" Selina said. She began running down the hall and when she reached the bedroom, Klaus opened the door and pulled her inside. When she saw what was on the bed, she screamed. "Oh, my god!" She cried. "Oh, my god, is that Elijah? Nicky, what have you done?"

Klaus grinned. "He told me about the plan you two came up with that led to me being left alone in Paris," he said. "Don't you think it would have been nice for you to have mentioned that to me?"

"I left you a note with the manager of the train station!" Selina said, struggling against his iron grip. "It wasn't like you were completely clueless! And I came back to apologize in '42, remember? That was when you threw the fit and-"

Klaus gave her a hard slap and held her face so that she couldn't move her eyes from his. "I don't want to hear another word out of you unless it's an apology," he growled. "Do you understand?"

Selina nodded and Klaus picked her up and sat her down on the bed next to Elijah. She whimpered, but didn't say anything, watching him as he paced back and forth in front of her. "Now, what to do with you?" He asked her. "Because you know I can't just let this go, can I? Do you think that would be fair?"

She shook her head.

"Good," he said. "I'm pleased we understand one another." Then, he suddenly stopped pacing and locked eyes with her again. "Stay here," he said "Don't move." He grinned. "I have a surprise for you. You're going to love it!" Gleefully, he left the room and Selina reached out and stroked Elijah's face, then looked into his frozen eyes and lay down on the bed next to him, sobbing and holding him tight. When she heard the sigh, she sat up, relieved to see Alistair come into the room.

"Are you all right?" He asked her. She pointed at Elijah and then put a hand on her throat and shook her head.

"You can't speak?" Alistair asked her. Selina shook her head.

Alistair sighed and moved some of Selina's hair out of her eyes. "This won't last forever," he said. "And we knew when we made the plan to get you out of the city that this would happen someday."

Selina nodded, looking miserable.

"I'll go get you a drink," he said. Selina nodded and when he came back, he had to run and put a hand on her arm. She was so close to pulling the dagger out. "I wouldn't," he said. "You're in enough trouble already. If you pull it out, it'll be even worse for you, and Elijah will suffer as well. Do you want that?"

Selina shook her head and pulled her hand away from the dagger. "We just have to wait," Alistair said, putting his arm around her. "Let Klaus do whatever he needs to do so that he thinks he's gotten a victory, and then this will all be behind us and we can move on." He handed her a glass of lemonade and she drank it.

After some time, Klaus came into the bedroom again. "Good!" He said to Alistair. "Bring her to the living room, would you?"

Alistair nodded. "All right," he said. He brought Selina up with him and they followed Klaus to the living room. When they got there, they saw three very frightened young men standing against the fireplace, pleading to be released.

"Who are these people?" Alistair asked Klaus. "Why are they here?"

"They're Selina's surprise," he said. "I brought them for her."

Selina's eyes widened and she clung to Alistair, but Klaus managed to pull her away. "Come now, pet," he said. "Remember how you used to enjoy the killing? It used to be fun for you. I'd love to see you do it again." He sobered. "Kill those men for me," he said. "All of them. And be very thorough."

He shoved her in the direction of the fireplace and she stumbled toward the first man. When the man saw her coming, his eyes widened and he took off running, but he was no match for her. She tackled him and sank her fangs into his neck, sucking greedily, then breaking his neck and dislocating his arms from their sockets with a deafening pop.

Alistair winced, watching her. The second man was handled much the same way, only when she looked up from the second man's neck, she was sobbing.

"Stop this!" Alistair said to him. "Don't make her kill any more!"

"Why not?" Klaus asked. "She used to be so good at it. I only wish Elijah could see this. He needs to realize that she's not as perfect as he envisions. Definitely not worth forsaking his family over."

"What is it that's making you angry?" Alistair asked Klaus. "Is it Selina's supposed betrayal, or Elijah's?"

"Do I have to make a choice?" Klaus asked. "Why can't we just say they both deserve what they're getting?"

Alistair narrowed his eyes. "No one deserves this. Especially not the mother of your children. She had every right to do whatever she could to feel safe. I would think that you of all people would have sympathy in a situation like this."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Klaus asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Your mother," Alistair said. "She did the same thing. And Elijah's father didn't take it so well, did he?"

Klaus shook his head. "He didn't. But it wasn't Mother's fault! She had her reasons, and-"

Alistair nodded. "She did. And Selina did too. So get over it, and let this go."

Klaus gave Alistair a sour look and went over to Selina who was crumpled over the second man's body and sobbing. He pulled her up and said, "Do the last one like a good girl, then I'll let you and Elijah go."

"That's not the same thing," Alistair said.

"Well, we can't leave anyone to talk about what they've seen here, can we?" Klaus asked.

Alistair rolled his eyes and left the room. There was no talking to him, at least not for the moment. Selina pushed herself out of Klaus' grip and grabbed the last man, breaking his neck and throwing his crumpled body on the ground. Then she crossed her arms and frowned at him.

"All right, all right," he said. "Just go. Get out of my sight!"

"I'm sorry things had to come to this," Selina said. "And I'm sorry your life is so empty that you can't just forgive wrongs. This attitude of yours will make you lose more than you know. That's what I'm really sorry about."

At that moment, Alistair came back into the living room, clutching the dagger. "You got it out!" Selina said and then hugged Alistair hard before sprinting to the bedroom and shutting the door behind her. She faced the bed and watched Elijah twitch and strain and then he finally sat upright for all of two seconds before Selina ran at the bed and pushed him back against it. "Hi," she said.

"Are you all right?" He asked her. "What happened? Let me sit up, please." She backed up and he looked over her. "You're covered in blood," he said.

Selina sighed. "Nicky compelled me to kill some people," she said. "And he said I had to be thorough." She buried her head in Elijah's shoulder. "It was horrible. I wanted to stop, but I couldn't! It was just like when I was first a vampire and Doctor Stensrund made me..."

"Shhh!" Elijah put a finger over her lips. "You don't have to talk about it if it's going to upset you. You can tell me later. For now though, stay here while I go teach my brother a lesson or two."

Selina sniffled. "Just be careful," she said. "Please."

Elijah nodded and kissed her deeply, then pulled away and strode out of the room. Selina heard yells and crashes. Finally, the third crash brought her to her feet and she ran back into the living room. She saw that Elijah had pinned Klaus to the floor and seemed to be about to pull his heart out.

"Don't do that!" Selina said. "Death would be too good for him."

Elijah looked up at her. "I can't just let this go," he said. "He hurt you!"

"And how is killing him an appropriate punishment?" Selina asked. "When there are so many worse ones out there?"

"What could be worse than killing him?" Elijah asked.

"How about not letting him see Lucy?" Selina asked. "Ever again?"

Klaus managed to laugh, even in his current state. "You can't do that," he said. Blood trickled out of the side of his mouth. Selina got down on her knees beside him. "I can," she said. "And I will. I'll make damn sure that you don't see her. Not while you're like this. And don't try to feed me bullshit about how you'll do better. I won't believe it until I see it." She got up. "Let's go home," she said to Elijah. "Let's not waste any more of our time with him. He's not worth it."

Elijah took a deep breath and slowly removed his hand from Klaus' chest, standing up, and then slowly following Selina out of the house without another word, but not before Selina gave Klaus a swift kick in the head.

"See?" Alistair said to Klaus when he came to help him up. "I told you this fit of yours would cost you. I hope you're proud of yourself."

"I don't care," Klaus said. "It's not like Lucy's my only child. I have others. I'll just spend time with them instead. I'll start with Roxanne. I wonder how she's doing?"

Roxie called Charlie up on the phone. "Can you come?" She asked. "I need help."

"What for?" Charlie asked. "Should I be scared?"

Roxie shook her head. "No, you shouldn't. I just wondered if you knew how to cook."

"Why?" Charlie asked. "Roxie, what's going on in your head?"

"Well, you know the bake sale fundraiser that all the extracurriculars are taking part in tomorrow? I thought I'd contribute," Roxie replied.

"For what extracurricular?" Charlie asked. "You hate all extracurriculars!"

"I'll think of something," Roxie said. "I just need to have four dozen peanut butter brownies made by tomorrow. Could you help? Please?"

Charlie rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'll be over in a few minutes." She put the phone down and Tony gave her a look.

"What was that about?" He asked.

Roxie's up to something," she said. "She wants to contribute to the bake sale. Brownies, she said. She wants me to help her make them."

"Well, that's nice," Tony said. "Maybe Roxie's finally embracing the joy of helping others."

Vince scoffed. "Not likely. I found the recipe she's planning on using. She stole it from Frannie Myer."

"Frannie Myer?" Charlie asked. "The head cheerleader?"

Vince nodded. "The very same. The one who got the the principal to promise the cheerleading squad a bunch of extra funding if she made all the brownies for his son's birthday, which he's picking up at the bake sale."

"Oh, god," Charlie said. "The kid who's allergic to nuts? If we make peanut butter brownies and the kid eats them..."

"Then Franny Myer will look bad, won't she?" Roxie asked. The phone was still face up on the counter. She'd heard every word. "And since everyone hates Franny anyway, guess who'll be in the running for student council president? That's right. Me."

Tony scoffed. "You as student council president? That's incredible!"

"Why?" Roxie asked. "I think I'd be good at it!"

"Well, honey," Vince said, "being student council president means you have to do a lot of work and be nice to people and those are two things you don't like."

"Ha ha!" Roxie said. "I can be nice to people if I want to. And why should I do a bunch of work when I can get other people to do it for me? I could have like, an emissary or something. Which one of you wants to be my emissary?"

Vince smirked and picked up the phone. "Roxie, this is a school election. Not a revolution to overthrow a small European nation."

"See, Vince, that's your problem," Roxie said. "You think small! You have to think big when it comes to things like this! It might start out as just a school election, but if I know what I'm doing, and I do, who knows? We could be starting a revolution to overthrow a small European country in like a year, two years tops! And a big European country in three years, and in five...the whole world!"

"It would take you five years to take over the world? That's a little slow, don't you think?" Vince asked.

"You're right!" Roxie said. "But no matter. Charlie, are you coming over to help me make those brownies, or what?"

Charlie rolled her eyes. "Yeah, Roxie. I'm coming."

When the girls were on their second batch of brownies, the doorbell rang. "I'll get it," Agnes said.

"No one's going to try and stop her," Roxie said. "I don't see why she insists on announcing she's going to get the door every time someone knocks."

Charlie shrugged, pushing a strand of her long strawberry-blonde hair out of her eyes. "I don't know," she said. "But I wonder who's at the door. Are you expecting anyone?"

Roxie shook her head. "I don't think so. Who is it at the door?" She asked when Agnes reappeared. "It's your friend," Agnes said. "I let him in. I hope that's okay. He wants to talk to you."

"Her friend?" Charlie's eyebrows knitted. "Let me see: Vince and Tony are back at the apartment, I'm here, do you have any other friends I don't know about?"

"Yeah," Agnes nodded. "A blond one. Handsome."

"Oh," Roxie giggled and looked at Charlie. "She's talking about my dad. I just told her parents that he was a friend of mine so they wouldn't freak out." She cleared her throat. "I'll go see him," she said. "Where is he?"

"Living room," Agnes said immediately. Roxie nodded and went to the living room, finding her father sitting on the sofa. "Well, look what the cat dragged in," she said. "What brings you here to see me? Did Mom and your favorite daughter dump you or something?"

Klaus narrowed his eyes. "You watch your mouth."

Roxie sucked in her breath. "Ouch, that must've hurt."

"I'm not kidding, Roxanne," Klaus said. "Shut the hell up!"

Roxie froze. "Well, all right. Geez, I'm sorry. What happened?" She sat down next to him and watched him expectantly.

Klaus sighed. "You really don't want to hear and I don't want to talk about it, so-"

"So why did you come over here, then?" She asked. "There has to be a reason."

"Well, all right," Klaus said. "Your uncle just informed me that he was the reason your mother left me back in '29. He encouraged her because apparently I don't care about anyone other than myself."

Roxie scoffed. "You know, that's absolutely ridiculous, the same sort of thing that Tony and Vince said when I told them I was going to run for student council president at school."

"You are?" Klaus asked. "That's wonderful. I'm so proud of you! What about Charlie? What does she think of all this?"

Hearing her name, Charlie came out of the kitchen carrying a bowl full of brownie batter and a spoon. "I'm here helping her make brownies, aren't I? If that's not supportive, I don't know what is."

Klaus shook his head. "Roxanne, why are you making brownies? You don't need to bribe people with gimmicks to make them vote for you. There's a much easier way."

"The brownies aren't for bribing people," Roxie said. "They're to sabotage a cheerleader who's also running. She's making her own batch of brownies to give to the principal for his son's birthday party and he's going to pick them up at the schoolwide bake sale tomorrow. The thing is, his son is allergic to nuts, so I'm switching out the cheerleader's regular brownies with these peanut butter ones. The kid'll eat the brownies, come down with a terrible case of anaphylactic shock, the cheerleader will get in big trouble with the principal for trying to kill his kid and I will win the hearts and minds of the student population for making the head cheerleader look like an ass." She looked immensely proud of herself.

For the first time, it really seemed like Klaus saw his daughter. He pulled her to him and gave her a hug, and then looked up at Charlie. "They grow up so fast, don't they?" He asked her.

"Yeah," Charlie said because she didn't know what else to say. "I guess they do." She headed back into the kitchen, leaving Roxie and Klaus alone with Agnes, who sat on the sofa across from them looking at Klaus with moony eyes.

"Who's that?" Klaus finally asked Roxie.

"Oh, that's Agnes, she's my minion, remember?" Roxie said. "After I win the election, I plan to have lots and lots of them."

Klaus grinned. "I'm so proud of you! And if your mother were in her right mind, I'm sure she'd be proud of you too. But no matter. You still have me and Uncle Stefan and Aunt Anna. We'll be glad to help you out."

Roxie nodded. "All right. Where to next?"

That night, after tucking Lucy into bed, Elijah came back into his and Selina's room and sat next to her on the bed. "Are you all right?" He asked her. "Really all right? It seems like Niklaus put you through a lot."

Selina sighed. "It was nothing that I've not done before, I'm sorry to say. It's just that the way he did it brought back to mind the earliest days of vampirism for me. The guy who turned me, he was our town doctor. He delivered me, he delivered my son, he took care of everyone in town, there was not a single person who distrusted him...and he turned me. Katherine got to him. He was part of her plan to get out of being Nicky's doppleganger. She had her witch Emily make up some sort of spell that made him believe he was in love with me and Katherine needed me to turn so that Damon would break up with me and she could have him for herself, it was a very complex thing, and even today I'm not quite clear on the details. But after he changed me and even before, I noticed changes in the doctor's behavior. Where he had once been kind, he was brutal. He no longer was the kindly grandfather type, but a vicious murderer, bringing in innocent men from the streets, the sorts that no one would miss, and then chaining them up in the same room where he'd put me while depriving me of blood so I would just rip the poor souls to pieces to get every last drop of blood I could to slake my thirst. After three weeks, I finally managed to get away, but I never quite managed to rid myself of those feral tendencies, probably because of my werewolf nature in addition to what I learned from Doctor Stensrund, but I didn't like experience of being a total hunter, so I learned to control it, and after I learned how to control it, I was able to live among people and be almost normal. I liked that much better."

Elijah nodded. "Moderation in all things is best, my dear," he said.

She ran a hand up his arm. "And what about you? Are you all right?"

He nodded. "Of course. Niklaus should consider it fortunate that he daggered me before I saw him hurt you, otherwise he would have been worse than dead."

Selina leaned against him. "I know he would have. You were doing a pretty good job of making sure of that. I'm almost sorry I stopped you."

He kissed her forehead. "Were you serious about stopping him from seeing Lucy?"

She nodded. "Of course. Do you really think she should be around him when he's like that?"

Elijah shook his head. "Of course not. Maybe when she's older, but now, after this, I just couldn't leave her with him."

"Then we're in agreement," Selina said. She nibbled on his ear. "So are we going to have fun tonight, or what?"

Elijah shook his head. "I think we've had enough fun for one day. You've been through a lot and I think it would be best if you went to bed."

Her head was already on his shoulder, her eyes half-closed. "But I'm not sleepy."

He sat her up and went and got pajamas out of her dresser and helped her put them on, then tucked her in. "Good night," he said. She shut her eyes and when he moved away from the bed to get off his clothes and she was sure he wasn't looking at her, she opened one eye and watched him undress. She squealed into her pillow and when he turned to face her, she shut her eyes, but giggled anyway. Rolling his eyes and grinning indulgently, he shut off the light, climbed into bed beside her, put his arm around her and closed his eyes.