"I realize this is a shock, Mother," Joshua said. "And this probably wasn't the best way to tell you, but-"

Selina sat down on the bed and sniffled. "I'm fine. But you're damn right it's a shock. What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to watch over Sam," Joshua said. "And keep Father in line concerning you. Be his conscience, if you will."

Selina nodded. "Sammy does need someone to watch over him," she said. "Lord knows I haven't been doing such a good job of it."

Joshua sat next to her. "Well, you do the best you can, don't you?"

Selina shrugged. "Well, maybe not. I don't know. I suppose I could do better."

"Well, why don't you?" Joshua asked. "Is it because of Father? Are you worried about him?"

Selinan nodded. "Maybe that's it. I mean, I don't do anything to encourage him anymore, but he's having such a hard time letting me go. And I don't want to hurt him, so I have this idea that the best thing to do is stay away so he's not tempted, even though I know that's not good for Sam."

"Well, I have to say this," Joshua said. "If you don't put aside your reservations about Father and pay attention to Sam now, you're gonna regret it later. Trust me you will."

"What can I do?" Selina asked. "I mean, I Sammy I'd arrange play dates over at the house more often, but look at me. Pretty soon, I'm not gonna have time."

"Well, make time," Joshua said. "I know Sam wasn't a child you planned for, but that doesn't mean he should have less attention than the others."

"He lives at a different house than the others!" Selina said. "And you can blame your father for that."

"Well, you have a car and drive, don't you?" Joshua asked. "How hard is it to get in your car and drive over here a few times a week? Or bring him to you?"

Selina sighed. "It's not." She got up and went with Joshua back into the living room. "You want to come back to my house with me, Sammy?"

Sam shook his head. "You don't want me to! You're just asking cause he said you should!"

"That's not true!" Selina said. "I'm asking cause I want you to come! I really do! So are you coming or not?"

Sam nodded. "Okay, I'll come."

"Not the most gracious invitation ever, but at least you got your point across," Joshua said.

"So what do you want to do?" Sam asked.

"I don't know," Selina said. "What do you want to do, Sammy?"

"Tell me how come Lucy is staying at my house," Sam said.

Selina cleared her throat and sat down on the sofa. "Come here and sit next to me," she said.

He reluctantly went to sit down. She pulled him to her, putting her arm around him. "So why is it?" He asked.

"Well, you know how Lucy is so far ahead in school?" Selina asked. "Well, she needs to be able to concentrate on her school work and I'm gonna have a baby soon, so I though that based on past experience, where having a baby makes me go insane, I thought it would be best to get Lucy out of the way for awhile."

"Why do you need to have a baby?" He asked. "You already don't pay enough attention to me. This'll just make it worse."

"Well that's why I wanted you to come here," Selina said. "So we could talk about that. What would you say if you and I had two days a week where it was just us spending time together? No Lucy, no baby, no one else but you and me?"

"I like that," he said. "But will you do it? Don't lie to me."

"I swear I'll do it," Selina said. "And I'm sorry I haven't been. In a way, you're more special to me than all the others."

"I am?" Sam asked, hope shining in his eyes. "Why?"

"Well, you're a lot like Joshua. I wasn't there for him either. You're my second chance and I'm blowing it."

"Why weren't you around for Joshua?" Sam asked. "Did another baby distract you then too?"

Selina shook her head. "No. After I had Joshua, that's when your daddy and I became vampires. The man who turned me sent your brother to live with your grandfather, who wasn't exactly a vampire fan, so the chances of me just strolling into his house and saying 'Hey, would you mind letting me see my kid?' were next to nothing. In the end, I just stayed away for a long time. Joshua was eighteen years old when I saw him again."

"Was he scared of you?" Sam asked.

Selina shook her head. "No, he wasn't. I was more scared of him, actually. I shouldn't say scared. Surprised? Shocked? I thought he was your daddy at first."

"You still remembered Daddy?" Sam asked.

"Oh, of course!" Selina said. "It's very difficult to forget someone like your daddy. Anyway, Joshua and I talked for awhile and he told me that if I ever got lonely, all I had to do was come and find him and he'd take care of me. It took awhile for me to take him up on the offer, but eventually I did. I got into a serious relationship with Lucy's uncle Aleksandr and neither of us knew the other one was a vampire, and then one day, out of the blue after ten years, he left me. That's when I went and found Joshua, who was married with kids of his own, and I lived with them for...oh, how long was it? Almost fifty years."

"Wow!" Sam said. "That's a long time!"

Selina kissed his forehead. "I know it might seem like it to you, but in the grand scheme of things, it really wasn't."

"Let's do something fun!" Sam said.

"Like what?" Selina asked.

"Play war!" Sam said. "Daddy tells me lots of stories about war."

"So not the card game, then?" Selina asked.

Sam shook his head. "No! Do you have any squirt guns?"

Selina shrugged. "I don't know. But I bet there's a place where we could get some for cheap."

"Okay," Sam said. "My gun is full and here's yours, Mommy. Let's get squirting!" He handed Selina her gun and Selina put a hand on his wrist. "Just a minute," she said. "I have to do one more thing first. You can help me."

"What is it?" Sam asked, following Selina up the stairs to the linen closet. She grabbed a few large beach towels and handed them to him. "Take these downstairs, would you?" She asked.

"What are we going to do with them?" Sam asked. "Are they for if we get wet?"

"No," Selina shook her head. "They're to cover up the leather chairs so they don't get wet. Elijah's very serious about keeping his chairs dry." They went downstairs and covered the two leather chairs with towels and then commenced to squirting, and didn't stop until they heard a sharp, "What in the world is going on in here?"

Selina turned and saw Elijah standing open-mouthed with his hand on the archway that led into the kitchen. "Hi," she said. "Sammy and me are playing war."

"In the house?" Elijah asked, his eye beginning to twitch. "Why couldn't you do it outside?"

"What fun would that be?" Selina asked. "There are more hiding spots inside."

"But what about the furniture?" Elijah asked.

"I covered up your chairs for you because I know you have a thing about them getting wet," Selina said. "So they should be okay."

"And what about this lamp?" He asked, holding up what remained of a small antique desk lamp. "It was an antique!"

"I know, but you hate it. You've said that a thousand times," Selina told him. "When I broke it, I didn't think you'd mind so much."

Elijah rubbed his forehead. "I know the two of you are having fun, but this has to stop now. Can't you think of something else to do?"

Selina sighed. "I guess."
"Like taking a nap," Elijah said. "Naps are fun."

"Naps are not fun," Sam said. "Naps are boring!"

"Well, doesn't your father ever make you take naps?" Elijah asked him.

"He makes me have quiet time, but I don't have to take a nap if I don't want to," Sam said.

"Well then how about you have your quiet time?" Elijah replied. "Before anything else in this house can get ruined."

"Fine," Sam said.

He walked out of the living room and Elijah gave Selina a look. "Are you okay?" He asked her.

"Yeah," she nodded. "Of course I'm okay. You'd know it if I wasn't okay. Look, I know you might not be thrilled about Sam, but I really think I need to pay more attention to him, you know? And it's not like he's moving in or anything."

Elijah nodded. "Well, it's good that you are making more of an effort with him. I'm proud of you. But in the future, may I humbly ask that you do not have squirt gun wars in the house anymore?"

"Okay," Selina said. "If we do something like that, we'll do it outside."

He kissed her hand. "Thank you," he said.

"Would you like me to make you something?" She asked. "Have you eaten?"

"I'm fine," he said. "I think I'll just go in the library and read my paper."

"Save it for me, would you?" She asked. "I haven't read it today either. And don't throw the comics away this time!"

That night, things were pretty quiet. Selina stepped out of the shower and after putting on a towel, plugged in her hair dryer and turned it on. Suddenly, there was a crash of thunder and a flash of lightining and a bang which plunged the entire house into darkness.

"Oh, shit," Selina whispered. She got down on her knees and crawled over to the door, "Elijah?" She yelled. "Can you hear me? The power went out!" She heard a crash and then Elijah called back, "I know! I just tripped over the footstool. Are you all right? Did you hurt yourself?"

"No," Selina said. "I'm okay. I'll go look for that flashlight you insisted we keep in a bathroom drawer."

"Oh, no you don't!" Elijah said. "I don't want to risk you falling down and injuring yourself. You stay right where you are and I'll look for the flashlight!"

Selina rolled her eyes but crawled over to the toilet, put the lid down and sat on it so that when Elijah showed up, he wouldn't find her on the floor.

"All right," he said when he showed up in the bathroom several minutes later. "Let's find the flashlight!" He found it quickly and turned it on.

"Hi," Selina said. "See? I'm not on the floor or anything. I'm fine. It happened while I was drying my hair."

"You could have been electrocuted!" Elijah said. "I mean, yes it wouldn't kill you, but it would still be very painful!"

"Relax," Selina said. "You're going to get yourself all worked up. Now what are we going to do with ourselves since we can't watch television or listen to the radio or anything? Talk?"

"I'm surprised that that's the first thing that came to your mind," Elijah said. "I would have thought you'd be eager to do something other than that."

"Well if you want to spent the entire blackout in bed, I won't object," Selina told him. "I just thought we might do something a bit more creative. Like a talent show."

"A talent show?" Elijah said flatly.

"Yeah! It'll be fun!" Selina said. "We'll take the flashlights into the music room and then we can show off our talents. Like you could sing or I could recite poetry, or play the piano, or..."

Elijah sighed. "I guess it would be something to do, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah," Selina said. "And as for dinner, we'll have to get take out, since obviously the oven doesn't work."

"I think I'd rather go hungry," Elijah said. "But if you want something, don't let me stop you."

"Oh, all right," Selina said. "I assume you want to lead me to our room so I can dress before I leave the house?"

Elijah nodded. "Yes, I do. And remember to keep one hand on your towel."

She giggled and he led her to their bedroom and kept hold of the flashlight while she dressed, then he tied her shoes and led her to her car. "Be careful out there," he said.

By the time she got back with her burger and fries, he already had the music room set up. "So do you want to sing first?" He asked.

"I would actually prefer it if you did," she said.

He looked hesitant. "Well, I don't know."

"Come on," she said. "Please? And we can't just have the place look like it normally does. We need atmosphere!" She pulled him along behind her as she went back to their bedroom and rummaged around under the bed until she finally found what she was looking for.

"What's that?" Elijah asked her.

She held it up. "It's a battery-operated disco ball you put on the floor and it flashes different colored lights," she said. "Now we just need a hair brush to use as a microphone and everything will be perfect."

She went to root around in the drawers in the bathroom and found one. "Hold this, would you?" She asked him.

"I am not singing a rock song into a hair brush," Elijah said. "It's absolutely ridiculous."

"Well, what else can we do?" Selina asked. "We don't have a lot of options. Don't make me have to get you drunk first because I will."

"I don't think that will be necessary," he said.

"Well, fine," she said, holding out the hairbrush. "Take it."

He gave her a look and took the brush. They headed back to the music room. Selina put the disco ball on the floor and turned it on, making circles of rainbow colored lights go all over the walls.

"So what are you gonna sing?" Selina asked, taking a seat on the piano bench. "I can't wait to hear."

"Well, I don't know," he said. "What do you think I should sing?"

Selina looked at him thoughtfully. "Bon Jovi would be good for you. Maybe 'You Give Love a Bad Name'? I could write down the words for you."

"I know some Bon Jovi songs," Elijah said, hitching his shoulders. "Give me a little credit, will you?"

"Well, okay," Selina said. "I'm sorry. And take off your shirt too. You'll be more convincing that way."

Elijah rolled his eyes and took off his shirt, leaving him wearing jeans and socks. Feeling a little foolish, he picked up the hairbrush and began singing 'You Give Love a Bad Name'.

Selina cheered for him and at one point in the song, he felt something soft bounce off his chest and fall to the floor. He stopped singing and looked down at what hit him. He picked it up and stroked it for a little bit before he finally realized what he was holding on to.

"Selina, are these your panties?" He asked her, looking shocked.

She shrugged. "Hey, girls throw their panties at rock stars all the time. I wanted you to have the full experience. Incidently, those are the ones I was wearing, so obviously, I'm not wearing any right now."

"Well do you want them back?" He asked her. She stood up and slowly advanced toward him. "Do you want me to want them back?"

He looked down at the ball of fabric that he held tightly in his fist and then found his eyes wandering toward her skirt. A noise escaped his throat.

Selina grinned. "Are you all right?"

He swallowed. "Yes, I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" Selina asked. "It's okay if you're not."

The more he stared at her skirt, the shallower his breathing became. Finally, he backed her up against the piano, kissing her deeply with one hand around her waist and the other going up her leg and thigh.. She reached behind her and unzipped her skirt, letting it fall to the floor. She kicked it aside and then let him go for a moment to get down on her knees and crawl under the piano. "There," she said. "This will be more comfortable." Elijah crawled beside her and began rubbing her back. He removed her shirt, then her bra, and before they both knew it, they were rolling around under the piano, yelling and banging into the legs.

At one point, Selina made a sound that was quite different from the ones she usually made during lovemaking. It made Elijah pause.

"What's the matter?" He asked. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah," she said. "I'm fine. The baby just kicked. It's nothing bad."

"Are you serious?" Elijah said. He put a hand on her stomach and soon he felt something. "Was that it?" He asked her. "Did he do it again?"

"What do you mean 'he'?" Selina asked. "This could be a girl, you know. We'll find out in a month."

"Really?" Elijah said. "That's not much time."

Selina kissed him. "I know, right?" She sat up and hit her head on the piano. "Damn it, ow!"

"What do you say we get out from under here, huh?" Elijah said.

Just as they were crawling out from under the piano, the power came back on.

"Well, that's good," Selina said.

"You want a girl?" Elijah told her.

"Well, I don't know what I want," she said. "I do like boys. I tend to bond better with my sons than I do with my daughters. Or maybe it was only Roxie I had a problem bonding with. I mean Lucy and I get on all right. And me and Lenora."

"Speaking of Lenora," Elijah said, "how is she?"

"Look at this, Daddy!" Lenora said.

Adrian looked up from reading the paper and snorted. Lenora was struggling to hold on to a grumpy looking Rusty who was dressed in a tutu and trying like mad to scramble out of her arms.

"What did you do to Rusty?" He asked. Then he noticed scratch marks on her face and arms. "And what happened to you? Why are you all scratched up?"

"Rusty and me were playing fashion show," Lenora said.

"Well, I don't think Rusty likes being dressed in girly clothes," Adrian said. "Why don't you go take the tutu off him?"

Lenora sighed. "Okay."

She went back to her room and after a little while Adrian heard a shriek. He ran to Lenora's room and found her sobbing and sitting next to a tall, gangly young man. "Who the hell are you?" Adrian asked him.

The young man looked up at him. "My name is Adam," he said. "Adam Caulfield. You wouldn't happen to know where Anna is, would you?"

"Anna who?" Adrian asked.

Adam shrugged. "I don't know. She only ever told me her name was Anna and she was so pretty that I never asked for anything more."

"Daddy this is Rusty!" Lenora said, becoming hysterical. "Rusty is a person."

Adrian got down on his knees in front of his daughter. "It's all right," he said. "We'll get this all sorted out, I promise." He looked at Adam. "Stand up," he said. "We'll need to get you some clothes first of all. I don't know if mine will fit you properly, but they're better than nothing."

Just then, they heard the front door open. "I'm home!" Helene called out. "Adrian? Lenora? Where are you?"

"Go to your mother," Adrian said to Lenora. "And bring her in here when I call you."

"All right," Lenora said, running out of the room.

"There you are!" Helene said. "Where's your daddy?"

"He's in my room," Lenora said. "But you can't go in there until he says."

"Why not?" Helene asked.

"He's with Rusty," Lenora said. "Rusty is a person now. And he wasn't wearing any clothes!"

"How did Rusty become a person?" Helene asked Lenora. "Were you waving your hand around again?"

"No," Lenora shook her head. "Rusty bit me and I said 'Ouch!' and my hand jumped and boom! He was a person!"

"Lenora!" Adrian called. "You can bring your mother in now."

Lenora led Helene to her bedroom where Adam, now dressed, sat next to Adrian at her little tea table.

"So you're Rusty," Helene said to him.

"Well, actually my name is Adam," he said, pushing his dark hair back and his glasses back up his nose. "You're Helene, right?"

"How do you know that?" Helene asked. "I'm sure we've never met before."

"This is Rusty!" Lenora repeated. "Didn't you hear me say that, Mama?"

"Yes, Lenora, I heard." Helene said.

"I'm a millionaire, you know," Adam said to her. "Actually, a multi-millionaire. That impressed my girlfriend at first but then she got tired of me for some reason."

Helene looked at him confusedly. "You had a girlfriend?" She asked.

He nodded. "Her name was Anna. I'm looking for her now. You wouldn't happen to know where she lives, would you?"

"This is weird," Helene said, looking at Adrian. "I mean, animal to human transformation is possible, but they never are able to have complex conversations because they still keep their animal brains, you know? I've not met one transformed animal who said stuff like 'I'm a millionaire.' Animals don't value money!"

"Wait a minute," Adrian said. "Adam, what did this Anna look like?"

"Oh," Adam said, "Tiny, very pretty, blonde hair, blue eyes, short temper-"

"AuntAnna!" Adrian said, slapping his forehead. "How could I be so stupid? Mom got you from Aunt Anna!"

Adam brightened. "So you do know her!"

Adrian nodded. "Yeah! And I can even take you to where she lives."

He and Adam got in the car and drove to Anna's house, knocking on the door several times before realizing that no one was home.

"That's right," Adrian said. "She's in Vegas. I'll give her a call."

"Would you get that?" Anna called to Stefan as she painted her toenails. "I'm busy at the moment."

Stefan picked up the phone. "Hello?" He said.

"Uncle Stefan, it's Adrian. Is Aunt Anna there? I have something I need to ask her."

"She can't come to the phone right now, but I'll take a message," Stefan told him.

"Well," Adrian said, "Would you tell her that I have her ex-boyfriend Adam Caulfield with me and I would like to know if it's okay for him to stay at your house."

"Sure," Stefan said, his hand tightening on the phone. "I'll ask her just that." But instead of doing so, he threw her phone against the wall with a growl.

"What's wrong with you?" Anna asked, coming out of the bathroom.

"Adrian called," Stefan said through his teeth. "He wanted to know if you'd be okay with an ex-boyfriend of yours staying at our house."

"Which one?" Anna asked. "Did he say?"

"Adam Caulfield," Stefan said. "Do you remember him?"

Anna nodded. "He was annoying. That's why I turned him into a dog and shipped him off to Selina's." She paused. "Wait. Did you say he's not a dog anymore?"

Stefan shook his head. "Apparently not."

Anna sucked in her breath. "Oh, boy."

Three months later, it was time to trick or treat. Selina and Elijah had gone out for Selina's birthday and to celebrate that they were having a boy, and Damon had a date, so Lucy, Sam and Lenora were at the Halloween party of one of Damon's neighbors. When everybody had their candy the three kids sat comparing their loot.

"I like the peanut butter candy," Lenora said to Lucy. "Can I have yours?"

"No," Lucy said. "I like it too!"

"Here," Sam said, dropping some mints and a toothbrush into her bucket. "You can have that."

"No!" Lenora shook her head. "I want the peanut butter candy!" She glared at them for a few moments before waving her hand. Suddenly, they began to shoot up in height, their features changing. When it was all over, they shifted uncomfortably in their tight costumes, then looked at one another and screamed.

"Do you see what I see?" Sam asked Lucy.

"What do you see?" Lucy asked weakly.

Sam pinched her cheek. "Oh, my god. this is real." He looked down. "You've got a nice rack all of a sudden."

"You say that again and I'm going to slap you!" Lucy said. She dragged Sam over to a hallway mirror and they both stared at themselves. "What did she do to us?" Lucy asked.

"I think it's obvious," Sam said. "Lenora is a witch. She got mad because we wouldn't give her our candy and put some sort of spell on us that made us older."

"Yeah," Lenora sauntered up to them, holding her candy plus theirs. "Big kids don't need candy. Now it's all mine!" She giggled and ran off.

"So what do we do?" Lucy asked. "Should we get out of here?"

"Sure," Sam nodded. "I bet I could find parties that are less of a drag than this one!" He took off and Lucy thought to herself that she had to go see Damon. That was the best thing to do at the moment. That and get out of these too tight clothes.

Damon had just gotten out of the shower when he heard the door to his bedroom open. He dried off his hair, wrapped a towel around his waist and stepped out of the bathroom, seeing something that made him start violently.

"Hi, Damon," Lucy said to him. She stood in front of him naked and dripping wet, looking much older than she had when he'd dropped her off at the Kintzer's Halloween party. "You wouldn't happen to have any shampoo I can use, would you?"