"I don't know what I can tell you," Selina said as she slowly sat up with Elijah's supporting hand on her back. "I just came in here because I needed to use the bathroom and then I sorta felt myself get dizzy and then I felt myself fall and I screamed and next thing you know, here you are asking me why I'm on the floor."

"Was this the same dizziness you had when we got you away from the billboard?" Elijah asked. "Do you feel sick?"

"Kind of," Selina said. "Not a lot, but some."

Elijah nodded. "Well, let's get you into bed then." He noticed she'd put on a nightgown as he picked her up and put her in bed. "That's good," he said. "We wouldn't want you to be cold." He saw that she was still barefoot and went to get some socks to put on her.

"I probably don't need to do a whole lot of thinking to figure out what's going on with me," Selina said, her voice tired. "I knew it would happen some time."

"You sound like it's a bad thing," Elijah said.

"In general it's not," Selina said. "I just don't like the body aches and the being sick and tired all the time. That's what I don't like."

"Well, try and go back to sleep," Elijah said. "It'll do you good." He walked over to the door and put his hand on the knob.

"Where are you going?" Selina asked. "Are you just gonna leave me in here? Come and stay with me."

Elijah turned and walked back to bed, climbing in beside her while she snuggled against him. "I like this better," she said, grinning. "Much better."

They stayed like that for a little while, but their bliss was eventually interrupted by a harsh knock on the bedroom door. "Elijah!" Mikael called. "Are you in there?"

"Yes, Father," Elijah called. "Would you like to come in?"

Just then, Mikael forced the door open and he and Amelia strode in, eyeing Selina and Elijah critically. "Not even morning anymore and still in bed?" Amelia asked. "Tsk, tsk."

"Selina's not feeling well and she wanted me to stay with her," Elijah said. "It's a special case, not our normal behavior."

"How could you not be feeling well?" Amelia asked Selina. "We don't get sick!"

"If we're pregnant we do," Selina said quietly, locking eyes with her mother. "This is the sixth time and the seventh baby. I think I should know the drill by now."

Amelia blinked, stepping back a little. "What?" She asked. "Are you serious? You're expecting another child?"

"We don't know for certain yet because I haven't seen a doctor, but usually, feeling like this does eventually lead to me finding out I'm pregnant," Selina said.

A grin spread over Amelia's face. "Well, in that case, you can stay in bed, dear. You need your rest. I will stay here and watch over you while Elijah and his father do whatever manly things they do."

This made Selina sit up. "Thank you, Mother, but that's not necessary. I don't need you to care for me. I can care for myself."

"Are you certain?" Amelia asked, looking her over. "You don't look particularly well."

But Selina pushed the covers aside and got out of bed. "I feel fine," she said, just as she stumbled and grabbed hold of the bedstead to keep from falling. "Really."

Amelia rolled her eyes at Mikael. "She's always done this," she said. "Ever since Selina was a little girl, she's never let anyone help her with anything. She always insists on doing everthing herself."

Selina glared. "Lots of people nowadays would find that an admirable quality."

Amelia nodded and sat down on the bed, moving her white lace skirt back into place so that it covered her legs. "It could be," she admitted. "But refusing help when you clearly need it is just pure stubbornness. Now, having gone through this myself, I suggest we put all bad feelings between us aside for the moment and you let me help you get through this."

Selina was hesitant. "What do you think?" She asked Elijah.

"I would take her up on the offer," Elijah said. "At least if you take your mother up on it, then I'll finally have a good reason to let my mother down gently."

Mikael smirked. "So Elissavetta is trying to get herself involved in this, is she?"

Selina nodded. "Yes, she is. And she doesn't have to try anymore. I'm actually used to her suffocating ways by now, and she's usually more than willing to babysit, even at the last minute."

Mikael's lips became a thin line and he looked at Elijah. "I don't think I want Gregory spending any more time with your mother," he said. "She's a bad influence."

"Father, with all due respect, she and Gregory have bonded. It would be difficult for them both if I told her that she couldn't see him anymore," Elijah said. "Please be reasonable."

"You don't think I'm being reasonable?" Mikael asked. "Doesn't it worry you that that lover of hers will have a bad effect on Gregory?"

Elijah paused, uncertainty on his face.

"You think so, don't you, son?" Mikael pressed.

"Stop putting ideas into his head!" Selina burst out. "Gregory is fine. Don't be starting trouble for no reason!"

Mikael turned on her. "So was it your idea to send my grandson to Elissavetta's and expose him to her bad influences? I should have known."

"Just a minute!" Amelia said. He turned on her, his eyes flashing. "What?" he asked. "Amelia, do you have something you'd like to say?"

Amelia shrunk back, looking afraid, but once she'd backed up against the wall, she took a deep breath and continued speaking. "I admit, over the years, my daughter has done a lot of things that have caused me to worry. She drank, she smoked, she murdered, she married men that I would not have approved of myself, but I know in my heart that she would never knowingly endanger any of her children. Maybe we should let them handle this amongst themselves and not get involved until we actually see a problem."

An uncomfortable silence filled the room as soon as Amelia had said her piece. Selina moved into a defensive position, keeping her eyes on Mikael's twitching hands in case he moved to hit her mother. Amelia sunk down to the floor, her head in her hands.

Finally, Elijah cleared his throat. "I think we should all step away from each other for a moment, take some deep breaths and calm down. Gregory and his upbringing are very senstive issues for all of us, but I'm sure we all want what's best for him, don't we?"

Selina, Amelia and Mikael all nodded.

"Well, I should hope so," Elijah said curtly. "Father, Amelia, I thank you for your concern, but I feel that Gregory is fine where he is and I will continue sending him to Mother's for the time being. However, if a problem arises, rest assured that it will be remedied immediately and we will look elsewhere for someone to care for him. We will also make sure that you and Amelia get equal time with him, since he is as much your grandson as he is Mother's. Is that acceptable?"

"No," Mikael said flatly.

"Father, we can go on like this for as long as you'd like, but you know how it's going to end up," Elijah said. "It would be easier for all of us if you just agreed to let Selina and me handle things right now, before words are exchanged and things become extremely unpleasant."

"All right," Mikael grumbled. "I suppose you will do your best to take care of Gregory, but he will go to a good school. A university. Some place well-known and particular about who they let in. We can't let his intelligence be wasted, can we?"

"Of course not, Father," Elijah said.

"Now that we've got that all settled, could you both leave?" Selina asked her mother. "I'm tired and I want to sleep."

"Can I get you some tea?" Amelia asked. "Or a sandwich? Maybe some warm milk?"

"No!" Selina said forcefully, shaking her head. "I don't want a drink, I don't want food, I just want sleep! I don't know how much clearer I can make myself. Everyone except Elijah, please go away!"

"Well, all right," Amelia said, her eyes wide. "You don't have to yell." She looked at Mikael. "Maybe it would be best if we went," she said. Then, as she was leaving the room, she paused at the door and gave Selina a long look. "Feel better, darling," she said.

Once they were gone, Elijah put Selina in bed again and tucked her in. He kissed her cheek and said, "Will you be all right by yourself? I think it's about time I went and picked Gregory up from Mother's."

Selina sighed. "Oh, all right," she said. "If you have to pick up Gregory, then I guess I can be by myself for awhile. But it won't be interesting, let me tell you."

"Good," Elijah said. "Maybe then you'll get bored and get the sleep you wanted so badly."

"I'm actually not that tired," Selina said. "I only said I was as a way to get our parents out of here without sounding rude."

Elijah grinned and ran his fingers through her hair. "Well, aren't you clever?" He asked.

"Yeah," she nodded, looking proud. "I am."

"Well, I'm still going to pick up Gregory," he said. "I won't tell you you have to stay in bed, but promise me that if you feel sick or get tired, you'll come back in here immediately."

"I will," Selina nodded. "I promise."

Elijah's fingers trailed out of Selina's dark hair and then he turned away from her and began walking toward the door. "See you in a little while," he said. "With Gregory."

Once he was gone, Selina got out of bed and went to grab her purse. She had to go and visit her father, just to see how he was. She hoped he'd been doing all right since he and her mother had split up. She dug around in her purse for her car keys and then got into her car and drove away.

She didn't know where exactly her father lived now, but she'd start at his last known location. It took awhile, but eventually, she found herself back and Mystic Falls and staring at her parents' old house. She parked in the driveway and slowly walked to the door, knocking. "Daddy?" She called. "Are you in there?" But she was met with silence. No one came to the door. She sighed and turned away, ready to go back to her car when she heard a squeak. She turned around and saw her father standing on the other side of the door, just inside the house, his expression grim, his hair tousled, his face covered by a growth of beard.

"Selina?" He said, his voice hoarse. "What do you want?" She came toward the door and he opened it a little wider. She got inside and saw that he was wearing gray sweatpants, a white undershirt, and he was barefoot.

"Daddy, what have you done to yourself?" She asked. "You don't look ready to receive company. I should have called first. I'm sorry." She turned to go and he put a hand on her shoulder. "No!" he said, his eyes brightening now. "Don't leave, please! We need to sit and talk. I feel like it's been forever since I've seen you. Please sit down and tell me how your life has been going."

Selina took a seat on the sofa. "I've been all right," she said. "What about you? How have you been since Mama's been gone?"

"A lot better than I should be," Matthew Warren admitted. "Would you think me a horrible person if I told you I didn't really miss her all that much?"

"You don't?" Selina asked in surprise. This wasn't the reaction she'd expected at all. "Why?"

"Now, wait a minute!" Matthew said. "Just hear me out before you start panicking. If you think about it, your mother hasn't really been a big part of my life for awhile now. The last time we were really close was when we were both alive."

"But you turned her!" Selina said. "If you didn't feel close to her, why did you turn her?"

"When I found her in 1864," he said, "She was a wreck. She'd been drinking, she looked sick, I just...I couldn't let her die. But it was only after we'd been together again for awhile that I realized how much she'd changed. She wasn't the woman I'd fallen in love with anymore. She was angry, bitter, and controlling. But I bet you knew about that."

"Yep," Selina nodded. "Story of my life. We got along until Charlotte died in the horse riding accident in '52 (1852, of course), and then Mama started wanting me to wear flouncy pastel dresses and play tea party and do a bunch of other stupid things that she'd never made me do before that. Before, she'd been perfectly happy to let me run around in the dirt with Damon and Stefan, but after their mother died...it was like part of Mama died too. That and around the same time, I almost activated my werewolf gene and the near miss scared the hell out of her. That might have something to do with her iron grip on me as well."

"I suppose we should feel some sympathy for your mother," Matthew said. "She's been through a lot in her life without someone there to help her through it."

"And she's getting better, I think," Selina admitted. "When she found out I was pregnant, she offered to make me food and tea and stuff and told me she hoped I would feel better from my morning sickness soon. That was nice."

Matthew's eyes widened. "You're pregnant? Since when?"

"Well, we don't know for sure yet, but with the way I'm feeling now, it can't be anything else. I don't throw up for any other reason."

"Do you need to go to the bathroom?" Matthew asked. "Do you feel sick right now?"

Selina shook her head. "I'm fine now. Thanks for asking."

"So this will be your what? Second child? I remember we met that son of yours, Adrian."

"This will be my seventh, actually," Selina said. "I had two with Damon, they are Joshua and Sam, three with Nicky, they're Adrian, Roxie and Lucy, and then two with my current husband Elijah: Gregory and then the one that's coming."

"You have a daughter named Lucy?" Matthew asked. "You didn't name her after Doctor Stensrund's daughter, did you?"

Selina scoffed. "Why would I name my daughter after the woman who turned you into a vampire and then tried to corrupt me and have me killed?" Selina asked. "I was thinking of Lucy Westerna from Dracula." She paused. "You're not still in love with Lucy Stensrund, are you?"

Matthew shook his head. "Of course not! The idea of being in love is not something that has crossed my mind for quite a while now. I've spent most of my existence in the company of other males or by myself. There haven't really been any women in the picture except for your mother."

"Just to be clear, you do still like women, right?" Selina asked.

"Of course!" Matthew said, looking at her in shock. "For heaven's sake, Selina!"

"Would you be interested in meeting one?" Selina asked. "Not necessarily for a romance, but just for company? And if it later evolves into something deeper, that would be nice too?"

Matthew looked at her suspiciously. "Who is she?" He asked. "If she's anything like your mother, I'm not interested."

"She's nothing like Mother," Selina assured him. "She's very hip, she owns a bar, and she's delivered two of my children. And did I mention she's the witch who created werewolves?"

"Is she a good witch?" Matthew asked. "Or a bad witch?"

"Good," Selina said. "Her twin sister was the bad one."

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt to meet her at least," Matthew said. "Let me get cleaned up and dressed so I look presentable and then we'll go."

Selina led Matthew into the bar and he was more than a little shocked when a beautiful, dark eyed brunette took one look at her, bounded over the bar and ran towards them. "Oh, my god!" She exclaimed, hugging Selina. "You're pregnant! Did you come to tell me?"

"I wanted to know for sure," Selina nodded. "And I brought my father too. Remember how I told you about him? Daddy, this is Enid. She owns the place. Enid, this is my father, Matthew Warren."

Enid grinned. "Well, aren't you handsome? Come and sit down. Can I get you a drink?"

After a few seconds, Matthew grinned back. "Sure," he said. "Why not?" He followed Enid over to the bar and ordered a beer, and then as he sat drinking it, she said, "Selina told me you're a vampire. Is that true?"

Matthew nodded. "I got turned after I caught typhoid fighting in the Mexican-American war. My doctor and nurse were both vampires and the nurse took a liking to me, so she turned me to save my life."

"Well, isn't that sweet?" Enid asked. "Was she pretty?"

Matthew shrugged. "She must've been. I don't really remember."

"That's all right," Enid said. She stared at him. "You know, I never would have taken you for Selina's father."

"Let me guess," Matthew said, his eyes twinkling. "I'm much too young and handsome."

"That and you don't look too much alike," Enid said.

Matthew nodded. "She looks more like her mother. But thank god she doesn't act like her too."

"Was she a bit much sometimes?" Enid asked. "Is that why you ended things?"

He nodded. "Just a little bit."

"Sorry," Enid said. "That's kind of my fault. I made female werewolves incredibly possessive. I made them feel the way I felt when I found my boyfriends cheating on me, because men always seemed to."

"Now I don't understand that," Matthew said. "Excuse me if I seem forward, but it is inconceivable to me that a man would be unfaithful to a woman like you. They must've all been fools."

Enid flushed a little. "Well, thank you," she said. "Thank you very much." Then she noticed Selina. "I'm sorry, hon," she said. "I completely forgot about you. Can I get you an orange juice or something?"

"No, thanks," Selina said. "I think I'll leave the two of you alone. Have a good time."

"Where did you go?" Elijah asked when Selina opened the door and he was standing just inside.

She took a deep breath. "Wow," she said. "You scared the crap out of me!" She paused. "Didn't you read my note?"

"You didn't leave a note," Elijah said. "So where did you go?"

"I went to see my father," Selina said. "To check up on him, you know? He seems to be coping well with Mama being gone."

"Of course he is," Elijah said. "He's the one who ended things between them. So you went to see your father and he's doing well. Did you do anything else?"

Selina gave him a look.

"What?" He asked. "I only ask because I'm interested and I care. Not because I want to control every aspect of your life."

"Well, after Daddy and I chatted a bit, I took him down to Enid's and he and Enid hit it off real well. And she told me I'm definitely pregnant. What about you? Is your mother's house still in one piece? You didn't pick fights with anyone, did you?"

"No," Elijah said. "Fortunately Mother was the only one home. I told her what Father said when he and Amelia stopped by, and she said that Ronan does his best to stay out of the way when Gregory visits. Apparently, he feels the same way about Father that Father does about him and doesn't want to do anything he might regret later on."

"Your father should have nothing to worry about, then," Selina said and sat down in her chair. Elijah left the room and came back, plunking a couple of envelopes in Selina's lap. "Letters from Lucy and Sam," he said. "I thought you'd want to look at them."

Selina opened each letter and read it over. "These are not exactly current," she said. "I wonder what they're doing now?"

"So, where are we off to next?" Sam asked Corrie. "Somewhere nice?"

"Greece," Corrie said shortly. "I'm not looking forward to it."

"Why not?" Sam asked. "I heard Greece was nice."

Corrie nodded. "It is, for most people. But for me, it's a nightmare. I was born there and spent my whole life trying to get away."

"Bad parents?" Sam asked. "Cause I totally understand that." He paused. "Well, my mom is all right. But my dad..." he shuddered.

"My dad was bad too," Corrie said. "He slept around a lot. Sometimes with my half-sisters. How sick is that?"

"You never actually walked in on them doing it, did you?" Sam asked. "I did."

Corrie turned. "You saw your dad having sex with your half sister? Ouch."

Sam shook his head. "No, I just saw the aftermath. But it was enough to put two and two together."

"Did your father let you be taken away from your mother and sent to live somewhere that made you miserable?" Corrie asked.

"Not exactly," Sam said. "See, Mom wanted to have me and my sister grow up together, but we have two different dads and my dad didn't want to live without me, so he spirited me away and I hardly ever saw my mom after that. I mean, she'd come and see me occasionally, but it wasn't the same."

Corrie smiled and took his hand. "You and I have a lot in common, don't we, Sam?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah, we do."

"I would love to hear more about your family," she said.

"I don't know if you really do," he shook his head. "They're pretty crazy."

Corrie grinned. "Try me."

"My parents, they're vampires," he said. "Mom had my older brother before she turned, so he's almost a century older than me. He's a ghost now. He sticks around sometimes and helps me out. See? Crazy, right?"

She shrugged. "No crazier than my story. My mother is Demeter, goddess of the harvest. In Rome, they called her Ceres. My father is Zeus or Jupiter, the king of the gods. And me, my name is Persephone, that or Proserpina. My uncle Hades fell in love with me and dragged me down to the underworld to make me his queen. My mom was so distressed when Dad told her I could never come back that all the crops in the world withered and died. People starved until finally, Daddy agreed to let me go back to my mother on the condition that I hadn't eaten anything while I was in the Underworld."

"And had you?" Sam asked.

"Six pomegranate seeds," she said. "I was hungry and my uncle tricked me. Daddy must've known it was a trick, so he told Mother that I had to spend six months in the underworld with my uncle, but I was allowed to spend six months with her, too."

"Oh, bummer," Sam said. "That really sucks! But what are you doing here?"

"I liked your music," she said. "You're just like Orpheus. His voice was so wonderful that when he sang, even the birds stopped singing so they could listen to him."

"Wow," Sam said. "Thank you for the compliment."

She grinned. "No problem. But enough about me. I'll tell you more about my uncle eventually, but it can wait. Any more members of your family I should know about?"

"Well," Sam said, "The half-sister who slept with my father? Her name is Lucy and she's an artist. She's working on a mural for some opera house in Paris. She hasn't told me much about how it's going. I hope she's enjoying herself as much as I am."

Lucy stumbled into her bedroom and cursed as she stubbed her toe on the edge of one of her easels and it went crashing to the ground. She knew she shouldn't have left the lights off, but she'd just thought it would have been easier to go to bed without having to turn the lights on and off again.

Taking a deep breath, she strode over to the bed, kicking aside every dark shape that was on the floor ahead of her and collapsed in a heap on her mattress. She was too tired to even think about undressing. Monsieur Matthieu had fussed at her about every single thing on the mural. He'd actually had the nerve to suggest that she sketch out exactly what she was going to paint for him, and when she'd done that, he'd spit on the sketches and set them on fire! It had taken all her willpower not to tear out his throat and suck him dry.

Finally, she'd gotten the concept just right and every time she'd painted a section, someone, or something had made it disappear.

At her lunch break, she'd tracked down Pierre. "Tell me something," she'd said. "Is this place haunted?"

Pierre had stared at her incredulously for a moment and then he'd burst out laughing. "A phantom in an opera house," he'd said with a twinkle in his eye. "Just because M. Leroux's opera house had a phantom, that doesn't mean all of them do."

"But my work on the mural keeps disappearing!" she'd explained. "Whole sections of very hard work just going poof into thin air."

He'd shrugged. "I don't know what to tell you, but it was definitely not a ghost."

With that information, she'd spent the rest of the day painting and repainting one section of the mural over and over and over again. It was a section that had flowers in it and Monsieur Matthieu had insisted that they be accurate down to the slightest detail, so it was a pain in the butt to have to do those damn flowers over and over again.

Groaning, she hit her pillow. She'd dealt with enough shit today. Now, all she wanted was to dream of something nice...

As she drifted off, she heard a knock on her bedroom door. Groaning, she got up and walked across the room. "If this isn't an emergency, I will kill whoever is on the other side of this door. I was just about to go to sleep!" She opened the door and gasped. Damon was standing on the other side with flowers.

"Oh, my god, it's you," she gasped. "What are you doing here?"

He grinned. "I was hoping to make a nice surprise for you, but now that you've put the threat of death on the table, I'll go."

Shaking her head, she pulled him inside and kissed him, the flowers dropping from his hand onto the floor. "No, no," she said. "Stay, please." She ran her fingers through his hair as he kissed down her neck. "All right," he said. "I'll stay."

She moaned as he pulled her shirt over her head and carried her over to her bed. He put her down on the mattress and then loomed over her with a wicked grin on his lips. "I thought you were tired," he said.

She shook her head. "Not anymore." She reached up and unbuttoned his shirt, running her fingers down his chest. As they neared the button on his pants, she heard him gasp. She grinned. "Do you want me to stop?"

"No," he said, panting. "No, don't stop." She unbuttoned and unzipped his pants, running her fingers lightly over him.

He reached up and ran his fingers through her hair. "I've missed you," he said. "So much."

"Really?" She asked. "I've really missed you! I think of you every night."

His fingers trailed out of her hair as he kissed her one more time and then got up on his knees, hooking his fingers under the waistband of her pink pajama shorts. "I want you out of these," he said.

She whimpered and nodded. "I want me out of them too." He started to pull them down and she wriggled out of them, followed by her panties. Now, all their clothes were on the floor and they were both naked. They gave each other a few deep, lingering kisses, and then Lucy let out a shriek as he swept her into his arms and they were one at last.

* Italics= A dream sequence