Elijah woke up early the next morning, showered, dressed and was in his office reading the paper before Selina or Gregory had even woken up. Things were peaceful for about another two hours, then he heard a knock on his office door. "Come in!" He called. Then the door opened and Selina poked her head in. "Are you having a good morning?" She asked. "May I come in? I have something for you."

Elijah put down the book he was reading and nodded. "Of course," he said. "Come in."

She entered, carrying a tray with a cup of coffee and a piece of Gregory's leftover birthday cake on it. "I know you don't usually eat cake for breakfast, just dry toast and coffe, but I figure if we don't eat it right away, it will get wasted."

He managed a small smile for her. "I suppose I could make an exception just this once," he said.

She came around and began rubbing his shoulders. "We should be congratulating ourselves," she said. "Getting Gregory through his first year as well as we did."

Elijah, who had been preparing to eat his cake, put his fork down, lay his head back, shut his eyes and moaned contentedly. "That feels good," he said. "You wouldn't mind going down a little, would you?"

Selina nodded. "Sure."

This went on for a little while longer and once Elijah felt sufficiently loosened up, Selina decided to leave him to eat in peace and go check on Gregory again. "Enjoy your cake," she said, then grinned at him and left the library.

Once she was gone, Elijah looked down at the small square of white cake and saw that Selina had written "I love you" on it in red icing. Warmth began to fill him. He didn't deserve that. He'd been so mean to her, throwing fits about the living room paint and her attempt at throwing Gregory a birthday party, which really hadn't been that unpleasant now that he had time to go over it in his mind.

As he stared at the sentence, it began to expand until his field of vision was completely taken over by the giant red "I love you". Groaning, he grabbed his fork and began stabbing savagely at the words, then when he couldn't make them out anymore, he took a deep breath, sipped some coffee, and ate his cake in peace.

"I did it!" Selina said, bursting through Gregory's bedroom door. He had been laying on a blanket set out on the floor, handling his blocks. He looked up in alarm at the sound of Selina's voice and then relaxed as she got down next to him and took him in her arms. "I did it, Gregory," she said, holding him against her chest. "Your daddy thinks he's the boss of everything, but I have my ways of working around him. Any minute now, he'll come in here and tell me he's sorry he was mean to me about your birthday party. He'll never admit it, but Mama's the boss and soon he's gonna know that."

Sure enough, Elijah came into the room and looked at Selina, who was giving Gregory a puppet show with one of her socks that she'd taken from her dresser and glued goggly eyes on.

"Selina, we have to talk," he said sharply. "Come with me."

Selina brought the sock down and gave him a knowing look. "I just knew you'd want to 'talk' after you saw that cake. So where do you want to 'talk'? In our bedroom or your office? I'm open to either. Let me finish the third act, first though."

"Mama boss!" Gregory chirped brightly, looking at Elijah with a grin that showed several small pearly white teeth.

"What?" Elijah asked, looking at his son in surprise. "What did you say?"

"Mama boss!" Gregory repeated.

Selina put the sock down on top of the spare bed she was kneeling behind and stood up. "I don't know where he would have heard something like that," she said. "I certainly didn't say anything."

"Did you compel him to say that?" Elijah asked her.

"No!" Selina said. "I would never compel a baby to do anything! I can't believe you'd think I would! Just for that, we will not be doing any 'talking' anywhere!"

"I was actually going to apologize for how I've been acting lately," Elijah said, following her out of Gregory's room.

"Ha!" Selina said. "Accusing me of corrupting our child is a pretty funny way of apologizing." She stopped suddenly and turned, giving Elijah a reproachful look. "Did you enjoy your cake?" She asked. "Or are you going to make me regret giving it to you?"

"Well, do you regret it?" Elijah asked. "No one forced you to bring it to me!"

Selina scoffed. "Well, I can't believe your ego is so fragile that you'd be threatened by something a one-year-old said! But I shouldn't be surprised. This has just been a pattern with you lately: first you get upset about the furniture. I can possibly see give you leeway for that. Then, you get upset about the party. For god's sake, that was for Gregory's birthday, not yours! Now, if I had been stupid enough to try something like that for your birthday, then yes, the hissy fit that you threw might have been justified. But I would never do that. I know you too well. Now you're all upset because Gregory repeated something that I said for a joke. I can't take this anymore. You're acting petty and childish and you owe me an apology." She stood in front of him, expression severe, arms crossed, waiting for him to speak.

Elijah watched her stonily but said nothing.

Selina sighed. "Well, I think I'll just go until you're ready to apologize to me," she said. "I think I'll go to Damon's and make sure he's getting around all right. And then maybe I'll have sex with him, since I'm such an immature, despicable person!" She gasped. "Oh, wait, I won't. One of us has to be the mature one here and since you're busy sulking and throwing a tantrum, I guess that job falls to me. See you later...or not." She grabbed her purse, headed out the door, got in the car and headed to Damon's, leaving Elijah to go back into Gregory's room and take him back to his office.

"Well, look who's up and about! That's nice to see!" Damon straightened up from the trying to get something out of one of the lower cupboards in the kitchen and turned around to see Selina grinning at him.

"Yeah," he said. "Roxie and Lucy got the blood to me in time. Can I get you a drink?" he asked.

Selina nodded. "Lemonade?"

"Sure," Damon said. "I've got that." He poured her a glass of lemonade, got a beer for himself and the two of them sat at the kitchen table and watched out the window as snow began to fall.

"Lucy's gone back to Mimi's," he told her after a moment. "If you came here looking for her."

Selina shook her head. "I didn't. I came here to see if you were okay. And thank you for saving Lucy's life. It was a brave thing you did."

Damon flushed a little. "It was nothing. Considering she wouldn't have died permanently anyway. It was probably more stupid than brave."

Selina reached for his hand and took hold of it, locking eyes with him. "Now, you listen to me," she said. "No matter if Lucy would have died permanently or not, the bite would have made her go through changes that would have been a big shock to her system because I've been less than open with her about her werewolf side. I mean, she knows it's there and everything, but I've neglected to explain things in detail like I did with Roxie and Adrian. So what you did was a good thing and I'm grateful. Thank you."

"You're welcome," Damon said as she let his hand go. "She asked me why I did it and I told her about the first time we had to change you back after Mason turned you human. How hard it was for all of us to go through. And how it would have been even harder for me to go through it with her than it was for me to go through it with you. No offense or anything."

Selina shook her head. "None taken, really. Now, did you tell Sam about what happened to you? Does he know you almost died?"

Damon shrugged. "I actually don't know where Sam is," he said. "I know it sounds horrible, but he bolted after he found out about Lucy and me and I haven't heard from him since."

Selina's mouth became a thin line. "We'll have to change that," she said. "Let me see if I can't get him here myself."

"Good luck finding him," Damon said. He watched her swallow the rest of her lemonade in one gulp and then she stood up and grabbed her coat.

"Don't worry about me," she said. "I'll find him. "I have my ways." She put her coat on and strode out the door, getting in her car and driving away.

As Selina drove away from the house, she picked up her phone and tried to call Roxie several times, but got no answer. "It figures," she muttered under her breath. "She probably saw that it's me and is refusing to pick up." Then, she saw something in the rearview mirror that gave her a start. Joshua had appeared and was sitting calmly in her backseat.

"Looking for Sam?" He asked.

"Yeah," Selina nodded. "Your father said that he hasn't heard a word from him in days."

"And no wonder," Joshua said. "Sam comes home for a nice visit and finds Father in bed with that girl who has the gall to call herself my sister."

"She is your sister," Selina said. "Whether you like it or not."

Joshua raised an eyebrow. "The way you speak, it's as if you're condoning her behavior. You're not, are you?"

"It was a bit jarring when I first found out about them, I admit it," Selina said. "But now that I've had time to adjust to the idea, it's not so bad, really. I mean, it's not like your father is seeing anyone else. And Lucy's not. And the two of them aren't related by blood. She was in danger recently and your father risked his life to save hers. This isn't a casual thing, Joshua. Your father genuinely has feelings for Lucy."

Joshua looked at her stonily from the backseat and said nothing.

"You don't think like Sam does?" She asked after a moment. "You don't hope that your father and I will get back together and see Lucy as an obstacle to that?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Mother!" Joshua said, looking genuinely disgusted at her suggestion. "I understand and respect your desire to have your own life and don't hate you for pursing other men. But for goodness' sake, Lucy is only a child! Father should find someone more suitable for him. Someone older and more mature."

"Lucy's more mature than you give her credit for," Selina said.

"I wasn't speaking of her physically. I was speaking more in terms of emotionally and mentally," Joshua said.

Selina nodded. "And so was I. But you don't have to worry. Lucy's been offered the opportunity to go off to Europe and study art for a year and her father, uncle and I have encouraged her to take it. If all things go as planned, for the next year, she won't be anywhere near your father."

"It's nice to see you're thinking as sensibly as I am," Joshua said with approval. "In that years' time, Father will have moved on and so will Lucy."

"That's what her father and uncle are hoping, but they both have promised that when she gets back from Europe, if she still feels strongly about your father, then we'll all let it go and see what happens. She'll be grown up by then, old enough to make her own decisions."

"And I hope she'll make the right one and leave Father alone," Joshua said. "That's what would be kindest."

"It's no use talking to you," Selina said. "I'd be better off talking to Roxanne. I've been trying to reach her for quite awhile, but no one's answering the phone at her house. She's the only one I can think of who might know where Sam is staying. I'll try her again. I just don't know why she's not answering. I would think at the very least, she'd pick the phone up so I would stop calling every two seconds. But no, she won't even do that for me." Selina sighed and dialed Roxie's number again, and once again, there was no answer.

"Where are we?" Vince asked as he sat up in the sturdy oak bed and looked around at the walls of a room painted in burnished gold.

"I don't know," Roxie said. "But it's nice."

They sat in silence for a moment, then Vince reached over and gave Roxie a pinch. "Ow!" She said, eyeing him reproachfully. "What the hell was that for?"

"Sorry," Vince said. "I just wanted to see if this was a dream or not, because I know for a fact that this is not the room we went to sleep in last night."

"True," Roxie said. "What if you and I both got really drunk and drove here or something?" She asked. "Is that possible?"

He nodded. "Well, us getting drunk enough to do something we don't remember is a possibility, but I don't think we could drive drunk and come out of it as well as we have. I mean, I don't see any bumps or bruises on you." He looked at her under the covers. She wasn't wearing anything and neither was he. "All of you is as perfect as normal." She nodded and looked under the covers herself. "I could say the same thing about you. So what does that leave us with?"

"I would say that our friends might have kidnapped us and brought us here as a surprise, but we don't really have any couple friends since Charlie and Tony moved away," Vince said.

Just then, there was a knock on their bedroom door. Roxie covered herself up and Vince called for the person on the other side of the door to come in.

The door opened and Roxie grinned as she saw the familiar face. "Alistair!" she said as he came in the room. "We're so glad to see you. Where are we?"

He gave her a sad little smile, his dark eyes full of pity. "It's not surprising you don't remember anything about last night," he said. "Due to the accident and all. It seems you had a bit too much to drink and crashed near here. We picked you up."

"No, see, we can't have gotten into an accident last night or been drunk because I am not hungover and I don't have any bumps or bruises or anything like that."

"Well, that's because I healed you the minute the servants brought you in," he said. "You two were real messes both of you. But you seem fine now. Would you like some breakfast? Sera insisted that you come down and eat with her when you felt like being up and about."

"Oh," Roxie said, "Sure. Tell Sera we'd be more than happy to join her for breakfast."

Alistair gave a small bow. "Of course. And I laid out some of her clothes for you, Miss. And some of the master's for you," he added to Vince. "See the two of you downstairs shortly."

He shut the door and Roxie looked at Vince's clueless face eagerly. "Do you know where we are?" She asked.

"No," Vince shook his head. "We've been trying to figure that out. Remember?"

"Well, I think I know now," Roxie said. "We're in the twenties! We've traveled back in time somehow!"

"You're kidding, right?" Vince told her. "Where are we really?"

"I'm serious!" Roxie said insistently. "That Sera that Alistair was talking about, that's the name Mom went by when she and Dad were first together. In the twenties!" She shook him, eagerly. "Isn't that exciting?!" As if to prove her point, there was another knock at the door after She and Vince had dressed. "Come in," Roxie said.

Vince gasped at the blonde who poked her head in. "Is everything all right in here?" She asked. "The two of you seem much better than when the men picked you up last night after that car wreck."

"We're great," Roxie said. "Thanks for taking us in to your home like this."

The blonde nodded. "It's no problem." She then looked at Vince with concern. "Are you all right?" She asked. "Why do you keep looking at me so oddly. Do I have something on my face?"

"No," Vince said, blinking and looking away. "It's just that you look an awful lot like...someone we know back home."

"Do I?" Sera asked, fluffing up her hair. "Is she pretty?"

Vince nodded. "Yes. The likeness is uncanny."

"Aren't you just a charmer?" Sera asked with a grin. "Well, take your time dressing. I'll be going back downstairs now."

"Just a minute," Roxie said as Sera put her hand on the doorknob.

"Yes?" Sera asked.

"The man who lives with you, will he be joining us for breakfast?" Roxie asked hopefully.

Sera shook her head. "I'm sorry. Nicky left early this morning. He and his brother went on a...hunting trip."

"Oh, darn," Roxie said. "I was looking forward to meeting him!"

"I'm sorry," Sera said. "He's a very charming man. You'd like him. Lots of people do." She sighed sadly, shut the door and then they heard her walk away.

"Well, that was weird!" Vince said. "Is it just me, or did that woman look exactly like your mother?"

"That is my mother!" Roxie said impatiently. "I told you that, remember? We're in the twenties, she's a blonde named Sera, and she and Dad are together."

"But from the looks of things, it seems like there's trouble in paradise," Vince said. "She looked kind of sad when she was talking about him." Vince grabbed the calendar off the bedside table and looked at it. "1927. That's the date on this thing. Do you know what your parents were doing in 1927?"

Roxie shrugged. "I don't know. "I bet if we got downstairs, though, we could ask." They hurried downstairs and found Sera poking listlessly at her eggs. "Are you okay?" Roxie asked, sitting next to her. "What's the matter?"

"Can I tell the both of you a secret?" Sera asked Roxie and Vince, her eyes wide.

"Sure," Roxie said. Vince nodded. "What is it?"

"I'm in a relationship and I don't really want to be in it anymore," Sera said.

"You mean with Dad?" Roxie asked. Sera gave her a strange look. Roxie flushed. "I mean, with Nicky? That's what you call him, right?"

Sera nodded.

"Why do you think you want to end things with him?" Vince asked.

"Because I need something else in my relationship now," Sera said. "I was angry before, and Nicky helped me vent and we had our fun. But now, I-I just want to be with Elijah. He helps me be a better person even though I've done bad things." She looked at Roxie. "You understand what I'm saying?" She flipped her short blond hair out of her eyes.

Roxie nodded and moved her hand to grasp Vince's. "I think I do," she said.

"Who's she talking about?" Vince whispered to Roxie.

"My uncle," Roxie whispered back. "The guy she's with in our time."

Vince nodded. "Oh."

"It's so nice to meet someone who understands," Sera said. "Now all I have to do is tell Nicky, but I don't know how."

"I don't know what you're so worried about," Roxie said. "How much of a relationship do you and Elijah have? Have you had sex with him yet?"

Sera shook her head. "No, but I want to," she said. "I really, really want to. And it's not like Nicky and I are in any sort of committed relationship. I mean, we get through the day, come home, jump into bed together and that's it. We've both been with other people before."

"So just go ahead and sleep with Elijah," Vince said. "It shouldn't need a lot of thinking over." Then he winced as Roxie kicked him in the shin.

"I would," Sera told Vince, "But something is holding me back. He still doesn't know that I kill people. That I have killed people. And I'm still doing it...sort of. But I'm on my last one. I swore to myself that after I gave this man what was coming to him, I wouldn't kill anyone else."

"Wow," Roxie said, eyes wide. "This must be some guy. What did he do to you?"

Sera poked at her eggs again. "It wasn't something he did to me necessarily. I have this business where I mete out vengeance for women who've been wronged and this man, Alfred McIntyre, he's gone through lots of women in his long life and they've all killed themselves because of his heartlessness. Now, even a year ago, I would not have felt a stab of sympathy for women in their situation, but-"

"But what?" Roxie pressed. "Is Alfred a special case?"

Sera nodded. "He and I have a family rivalry going on, you might say."

"Yeah," Roxie nodded. "His mom tried to steal your fiance right out from under your nose, right? And now you want to make his mom suffer by killing him."

"How do you know that?" Sera asked.

"Alfred told me the story himself," Roxie said. "He's a vampire, you know. You turn him."

"How do you know what I'm going to do before I do it?" Sera asked. She was becoming disconcerted. She put her napkin down, stood up and called for Alistair. "Just who are these two?" She asked. "They talk as if they're from the future or something!"

"We are," Roxie said. "When we went to bed last night, we were more than a hundred years in the future and now here we are."

Alistair looked deep into Roxie's eyes. "When I entered your room this morning, you greeted me by name, as if we were old friends, yet we've never met."

"Yeah, we have," Roxie said. "You're my dad's lackey so I've pretty much known you all my life."

"You're Nicky's daughter from the future?" Sera asked.

Roxie nodded. "Yeah. And yours. You're my mother. Surprised?"

Sera nodded. "To say the least. I'm not capable of having children. I don't know what made you come up with such a wild story."

"It's not a story," Roxie said. "Your real name is Selina Warren. You were born in Mystic Falls, Virginia on Halloween, 1846 to a woman who had a werewolf gene and a father who went off to war when you were just two months old. He never came back. When you were seventeen, you got engaged to a man named Damon Salvatore, but right after that, he went off to fight for the Confederacy in the Civil War. You didn't see him again for years and years, but before you became a vampire, you gave birth to his son, who you named Joshua...do I need to go on?"

Sera put her hand on her forehead. "No, you can stop. I believe you. Why did you come here?"

"That's the same way you look at me back home!" Roxie said, making note of Sera's sour expression. "My name is Roxanne, by the way, but my friends call me Roxie. At least Vince does. I don't actually have any other friends."

Just then, a girl about twelve years old came into the kitchen and looked at Sera with narrowed dark eyes. "I can't believe I have to be stuck here with you all day," she said.
"I wish Nick would have taken me with him."

"Well, I think we all wish that," Roxie said before Sera could respond. "Maybe if he would have taken you with him, he might have gotten careless and accidently killed you. That would be such a shame."

"If you weren't an idiot, you would know that Nick and his brother don't hunt with guns." The girl burst out laughing. "That's so pedestrian!"

"Mary Anne-" Sera began.

"You are the the most pathetic person on the planet!" Mary Anne said, ignoring her. "I can't believe I used to be scared of you!"

The next moment, the smaller girl felt herself get slammed against the wall by Roxie. "Listen you," she said. "That woman is my mother and nobody is allowed to talk to her like that except me. And even I shouldn't be doing it. You even so much as open your mouth again and I am going to snap you in two. Do you understand me?"

Mary Anne's eyes widened and she nodded. Roxie threw her on the kitchen floor and then watched her get up and scamper from the room as quick as she could.

"Sorry about that," Roxie said. "You usually get mad at me when I do stuff like, you know, hurt people."

"I do?" Sera asked. "Well, I'll forgive you just this once. I've been wanting to drop kick that girl like a football ever since your father brought her in here."

"I don't blame you," Roxie said. "She seems like a real pain in the ass."

Sera nodded. "But Nicky seems to like her, so I have to be on my best behavior. It's so annoying."

Just then, the doorbell rang. "That's Alfred," Sera said. "He's really old now. You'd never guess from looking at him that he used to be a ladykiller." She went to the door and opened it to revel a dapperly elderly dressed man holding flowers. "Are you ready to go to the cemetery?" He asked her.

"Cemetery?" Roxie asked. "That's a strange place for a date."

"She's coming with me to visit the graves of some friends of mine," Alfred said stiffly.

Roxie scoffed. "Yeah...friends. Mind if I come along?"

"Actually," Sera said quickly, I would prefer to be alone, just the two of us. You understand, don't you?" She asked.

"Sure," Roxie said. "Sure, I understand."

They left and then Roxie ran to Alistair. "Do you have a car?" She asked him.

"Why?" He asked.

"Because I want to find out what Sera and Alfred are up to!" Roxie said. "So get the car and let's follow them!"

Alistair eyed her for a moment and sighed. "You really are Klaus' daughter, aren't you?" He asked dryly.

"Uh-huh!" Roxie nodded. "Now we have to get to the car. If you don't drive, I will drive myself."

Sighing, his gaze heavenward, Alistair led Roxie and Vince to the car and they followed Alfred and Sera to the cemetery, where Roxie instructed Alistair to park the car under a large shade tree where Sera and Alfred wouldn't be able to see them.

"What are we supposed to be watching for?" Vince asked her, his hand running down her back and over her butt.

"Stop doing that!" Roxie whispered. "I have to see Mom kill Alfred. I can't be distracted."

"Okay, okay," Vince said, moving his hand. "Geez!"

"Shush!" Roxie said, watching Alfred and Sera walk among the tombstones. Finally, they stopped in front of one and as Alfred looked at it, Sera pulled out a knife and plunged it into his cape, pinning him to the grave. Then she bit him and fed him her blood before leaving him alone on the grave, casting a hunted look about her and running off.

"Okay," Roxie said when the drama had finished. "I've seen all I need to. We can go."

"Shouldn't we help him?" Vince asked.

Roxie shook her head. "No. That would be interfering with the natural order of things."

"You really are a piece of work," Vince said. "Will you marry me?"

"What?" Roxie asked.

"Will you marry me?" Vince repeated.

Roxie leaned forward and gripped Alistair's shoulder. "Send us back," she said. "To our own time."

Alistair told them to shut their eyes and when they opened them again, they were in their own room.

"So," Vince asked. "Will it be yes or no?"

Selina finally managed to locate Sam and with dismay, went to his house.

"Mom?" He asked in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I need to talk to you," she said. "Did you know that your father almost died?"

"Really?" Sam asked. "How?"

"Saving your sister," Selina told him. "Lucy almost got bitten by a werewolf."

"Oh, it's a shame it didn't actually happen," Sam said. "If that's all you came to say, I don't really care. Goodbye, Mom."

Selina peered down the hallway over his shoulder and even in the darkness, she spotted a picture of Lucy pinned to a wall that had several knives stuck in it.

"Would you care to explain that?" She asked him. "And to invite me in?"

"No," Sam said quickly. "You can't come in. Sorry." Selina pushed past him and went into the house. She was horrified by what she saw. Everything was a mess and there were several effigies of Lucy that had things poking out of them. Selina began throwing them in the trash.

"You should be ashamed of yourself!" She snapped at him. "Thinking of your sister that way. What's she ever done to you?"

"You think I should be ashamed?" Sam asked. "What about you? You ignored me all these years in favor of her, giving her all the advantages when I had next to none. In case you've forgotten, I'm just a human. Lucy's all sorts of things. I've had to fight for everything in my life and what's she had to do? Nothing. You had all the time in the world for Lucy and none for me, and you don't even care! If you ask me, you are the one who should be feeling shame, not me. Now leave," he said roughly.

Selina stopped and held her arms out. "Sammy, I'm sorry, I-"

"Just go!" He snapped and shut the door in her face. She turned around, went back to her car, and by the time she reached the house, her face was red, wet and puffy from crying. She got out of the car and went inside, finding Elijah in the bedroom.

"I'm sorry about this morning," he said, coming to put his arms around her. "I shouldn't have snapped at you about Gregory."

She shook her head and sniffled. "That doesn't matter," she said. "Would you just hold me? I've had a bad several hours." He held her for a few minutes and then sat her down on the bed. "I've got something that will cheer you up," he said. He returned a few minutes later, holding Gregory, who held a single light pink rose in his little fist. "This is for you," Elijah said.

"Thank you," Selina said, taking it from Gregory. "That's beautiful."

Elijah sat Gregory down on the floor and kissed Selina deeply. As he lowered her onto the bed, she said, "Don't you think we ought to get Gregory back to his room before this goes any farther?"

Sighing, Elijah took Gregory back to his room and ran back to Selina. They undressed and made love for quite a while before they took a break. Then, Selina took a deep breath and rolled over to face Elijah."What if you're the boss in this room?" She asked. "I won't try to fight you for the title or anything."

"Oh, there's no question that I'm the boss in here," Elijah said. "But it's nice to hear you admit it. Now have you had a long enough break? I think I'm ready to begin again." He rolled her underneath him and ran his hands over her. Selina giggled and said, "Yes, boss."