Kevin finished his cupcake and then drove back to Klaus and Caroline's as fast as he could. "I saw her!" He said as he burst through the door and Klaus and Stefan put down their hands of poker to look up at him.. "I saw Selina and I don't know what the big fuss is. She seems really nice. She had a little kid and she gave me a cupcake and it was all really civil."

"When she asked who you were, what did you say?" Stefan asked.

Kevin shrugged. "I just told her that I was in town to visit my father. That's all. Perfectly reasonable, don't you think? Wait..." he said. "I don't look a lot like my dad, do I? You don't think she'll figure out who I am from looking at me, do you?"

"And he realizes that after he goes to the bakery and shoots off his mouth," Stefan tsked and shook his head. "You would think that a son of Elijah's would be smarter than that."

"You can't blame him," Klaus said, putting five dollars in the pot. "After all, he did grow up in a circus. Not exactly the best place to go to learn common sense."

"Hey!" Kevin exclaimed. "Watch it. It's not like I chose to grow up at the circus. It was a choice that was foisted on me by my mother."

Stefan looked up. "Look at you using big words like 'foisted'. That must've been some circus."

Kevin nodded. "One of the acrobats had a Masters in English," he explained. "She always used a lot of big words." He paused. "So, where does my father live?"

"With Selina," Stefan said. "But if you ask me, you've already met enough new people for the day." He handed Kevin his cards. "Play my hand for me, would you? I have to make a phone call."

He went to the phone and called Selina at the bakery.

"I have a question," he said to her when she answered the phone. "Did a guy stop by the bakery about ten minutes ago? dark eyes, kind of pale, longish brown hair, told you he was in town to visit his father?"

"Yeah," Selina said. "We had a very nice conversation and Gregory seemed to take to him. Why?"

"Was there anything about him that struck you as familiar?" Stefan asked.

"No," Selina said. "Why?" Her voice was suspicious now.

"No reason," Stefan said. "I have to go now. Goodbye." He hung up quickly and went back to the room where the poker game was in progress. "All right," he said to Kevin. "The good news is, she didn't suspect anything when she saw you."

"What's the bad news?" Klaus asked.

"The bad news is that she might soon," Stefan said. "But we might have more time than we think to find a way to get her off our trail. When I asked her if she recognized you, I didn't say a thing about Elijah."

Selina hung up the phone. "Well that was odd," she said to herself. She wet a rag and cleaned out the inside of the bakery case, then the phone rang again. "Hello?" She said. "Sweet Emotions bakery. How can I help you?"

"It's Anna," the voice on the other end of the line said. "Can you get away for awhile? I have to show you the most amazing thing I found when I was cleaning my closet out."

"What is it?" Selina asked.

"I won't tell you now," Anna said. "You just come over to the house and see what it is for yourself."

"Are you home alone?" Selina asked. "Or is Stefan there too?"

"No, he's not," Anna assured her. "He's having a poker day with Nik."

"All right," Selina said. "I'll bring Gregory home and then come and see you, all right?"

"All right," Anna nodded. "I'll be waiting for you."

"So what is this thing you're so eager for me to see?" Selina asked.

Anna led her to the living room, where an old book sat on the table. The cover was graying with patches of the hot pink it had once been showing occasionally. The title was still legible, but just barely: How to Be Sexy, Successful and Single: A Guide For the Liberated Woman, by Serena Novak.

"Oh, my god!" Selina exclaimed. "I haven't thought about this book in years and here you still have your copy!"

Anna grinned. "You want to read it so you can see how angry and bitter you were?"

"Sure," Selina said. "Why not? I can't even remember now why I was so angry anyway."

Elijah picked the book up off the counter and looked it over. "How to Be Sexy, Successful and Single: A Guide For the Liberated Woman." He sighed. "I thought she was done with it," he whispered to himself. Or at least that's what she'd told him all those years ago...

"Sera, tell me something," Elijah was looking at the woman he'd loved once who now had tears in her eyes, and he was trying to figure out why. "Sera, why did you write this book?"

She looked up at him. "Selina," she sniffled.

"What?" He asked.

"Selina," she repeated. "My name is Selina. I change it every decade or so, but that's what it really is."

"You never told me that," he said.

She shrugged. "I figure that now is as good a time as any to tell you."

"Tell me why you wrote this book," he said. "Why in the world would you write something that tells women love is bad and that it's better to be alone?"

"Because it is!" She burst out. "You think you love someone, and then they leave you for someone else, just leave period, or send you away and you spend years and years alone!"

"I didn't want to leave you!" He said. "I had to though. My father would have killed you otherwise. You know that." He sighed. "But have you been good for the last forty years? Have you killed anyone?"

"No," she shook her head. "I haven't. Why?"

"Because now my father has lost interest in you," he said. "So if you wanted, I could stay."

She shook her head. "Not now. I can't. If I were to get into a long-term relationship, I would lose all my credibility! My book would be ruined!"

"Or you'd be happy," Elijah said. "It just depends on what you want."

Selina shook her head. "I'm happy as it is," she said. "But thank you. You're one of the few people who's ever actually been concerned for me." She paused. "So what will you do now? Will you go?"

"No," he said, pulling her to him. "I'm going to do what I should have done years ago." He pulled her to him and kissed her deeply, not letting her go for a second. Then they pulled apart and looked into each other's eyes before Selina lifted up her arms. "Put your hands on me," she said. "That would make me happy."

"I don't really know if that's what's best for you right now," he said. "I think I-"

"Please," Selina interrupted him. "Stop thinking." Elijah looked at her, blinked and nodded, peeling off her dress. "All right," he said, picking her up and carrying her to her bedroom. He put her on the bed and undressed the rest of the way and then they made love. When they'd finished, he grinned at her.

"See?" he said. "That's what it feels like to make love to someone who loves you back. There's nothing shameful about it, is there?"

Selina shook her head. "No, I guess not. But this isn't going to work. Unless of course you'd be willing to just stop by a few times a week in the dead of night. Then we might be able to work something out."

"No," Elijah said. "I can't do that. I can't stand idly by and enable this hedonistic behavior that is clearly harming you more than it's helping you. Why do you keep having these empty, loveless one night stands when you know that you could have something better?"

"Can I really have something better?" Selina asked. "Every time I think I can, something goes wrong."

Elijah nodded. "Of course you can. Let me prove it to you. But if I agree to do this, you have to agree that you won't go any further with this 'anti-love' nonsense you've got going on. And by that I mean, no more books. You have to swear that you're done with them. I understand that this one has already been published and you have obligations concerning it, but no more."

"All right," Selina nodded. "No more."

Elijah smiled and hugged her. "Good," he said. "Let me get dressed and go back to get my things. I should be back later tonight."

"So," Klaus said when Elijah stepped inside. "What took you so long to get back? You told me that you were going to go see her and then leave. Tell me everything." He grinned wickedly. "Was she miserable? I hope she was miserable."

"Why is it that you take such delight in her misery?" Elijah asked.

"She abandoned me!" Klaus said. "Am I supposed to just sit back and take it? This is payback for every bit of misery she caused me forty years ago."

Elijah sighed. "Well frankly, and I will never tell her this, now I'm beginning to think it would have been better for her to go with you. At least she wouldn't have been so lonely that way."

"Exactly," Klaus nodded. "She would have had me, I would have had her, and neither of us would have had to be alone. But she thought she was much smarter than me. Went off by herself, and all I had left of her was a note from the train station covered in her perfume. So, is she as miserable as me?"

"Yes," Elijah nodded. "But I intend to remedy that situation. I'm going to move in with her."

"You're not," Klaus said. "Elijah, how can you side with the woman who betrayed me? How can you comfort her and make her happy?"

"It's simple," Elijah said. "She's upset, she needs comforting and you're too angry and foolish to do it yourself. So therefore, the job falls to me." He started to walk away and Klaus said, "She wouldn't remember me. She came by when I had that bar in Chicago in '42 and tried to apologize, but I decided it would be less messy to make her forget me and us instead."

Elijah turned. "Well, how fortunate for her. You did her a favor that day, Niklaus." He went to his room and shut the door behind him, leaving Klaus to stand in the hallway, and came out half an hour later, clutching a suitcase. "I'll come back for the rest of my things later," he said. "Goodbye, Niklaus."

"That is an appropriate thing to say, brother," Klaus told him. Elijah heard a whoosh! and moved just in time to avoid being impaled with a white oak stake. He sped out of the house and drove down to Selina's. When she answered the door, he was breathing hard.

"What's the matter?" She asked.

Elijah shook his head. "It's nothing," he said. "Family problems. Don't worry about it."

He took his clothes to Selina's room and after moving things around a bit, they finally had enough space for his stuff and her stuff.

"There," She said as she tucked in her last sweater and shut the bottom drawer of the dresser. "All nice and snug." Then she smiled at him. "Thank you for this," she said. "For moving in with me and all. Because you know, you're right. I've been living this way since I published the book five years ago. I figured that at the century mark, my life would finally come together, but no such luck. So I wrote the book, it made me a ton of money, and it made me happy for awhile, but now that you're here, that all seems so empty. Now that you're here, I just want to be loved. I love you, Elijah."

Just then, they heard a crash outside the house. "What was that?" Selina asked.

"I don't know," Elijah said. "Let's go and see." They hurried out to the yard where they found Klaus on the ground, a reel-to-reel tape deck on the ground beside him. "I saved it!" He exclaimed. "It didn't get damaged when I fell out of the tree!"

"Who the hell are you?!" Selina asked. "What are you doing with that?"

"Oh, nothing," Klaus said. "But congratulations on confessing your love to my brother. He said that would be the one thing that would get you to give up on your stupid book! And I said I'd be waiting out here with this tape recorder just so he'd have proof that you said what you said. He's lost quite a few girlfriends because of that little book of yours."

"What?" Selina asked, looking at Elijah. "How could you do that? How could you ask me to give up my book just because you're sore about losing a couple of girlfriends?"

"That's not me!" Elijah exclaimed. "My brother is the one who's lost women because of your book. Not me!"

"Save it!" Selina said. She had tears in her eyes. "I thought you'd be different, but apparently not. You're just like all the rest of them. You act like you're a nice guy, make me feel all secure and then bring the hammer down. I should have known, shouldn't I?"

She stomped off and Elijah looked at Klaus. "I'm going to rip off your head," he said, picking him up by the lapels of his coat and banging him against the trunk of the tree he'd fallen out of.

Klaus grinned. "Or how about I just leave so you never have to set eyes on me again? That would be a lot less messy."

"All right," Elijah said quietly. "Even though it's a mercy you don't deserve. Run, Niklaus. Run away and never set eyes on me again. Because if you do, I will kill you. That's a promise." He let him go and Klaus took off running. Sighing, Elijah went back into the house and found Selina sobbing on her bed. He put a hand on her back. "Selina?" He asked.

"Don't you touch me!" She snapped. "I hate you! Go away!"

He nodded. "I will. I take full responsibility for this. I should have insisted that you go with my brother forty years ago, but I didn't, so now you're miserable and it's all my fault. Therefore, I will do the one good thing I can at this point: Make you forget today ever happened." He locked eyes with her. "Although it pains me greatly to say this, you'll remember nothing about today. You'll go to sleep, wake up in the morning, and go back to having meaningless relationships with men who don't care about you because clearly, that's all your ready for now. I should have realized that, and I'm sorry." He kissed her on the forehead. "Goodbye, Selina." He let her go, stood up, and walked out of the room and the house, and with a heavy heart, left the woman he loved...again.

"What are you looking at?" Selina's voice broke into his reverie and he started badly.

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

"Yes," Elijah nodded. "I'm fine. Well, no I'm not." He sighed. "Seeing this book, it stirred up some feelings in me."

"Yeah, I know," Selina said. "You hate it. You probably don't want it in the house, do you? Anna just gave it to me so I could have a look at how angry and bitter I was back then and be grateful for how good my life is now. Cause it is. I've got my business, some great kids, and a guy who loves me. I'm not wanting for anything." She smiled and hugged him. Elijah squirmed uncomfortably and pulled out of her grasp.

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

Elijah shook his head. "There's something you should know: In '69, you and I met up again. You'd been living with the book's notoriety for five years and the novelty was beginning to wear off. Do you remember that?"

"Yeah," Selina nodded. "I do. I remember wanting to be in a real relationship by '69, but I don't remember us ever meeting. All I remember is you sending me off on the boat in '29 and then seeing you again when I was together with Nicky. What are you talking about with the rest of it?"

"We did meet," he said. "I came by your apartment and we talked and I mentioned that since my father was no longer interested in you that we could consider moving in together and you said yes." He sighed. "We made love and I promised you that being with me would be the beginning of a new life for you where you would feel loved and secure and protected. But then Niklaus got jealous, partially because your book had cost him several of his harem of women and partially because I was showing affection for the woman who he felt had betrayed him. So he recorded us expressing our feelings for one another and made it seem like I had asked him to and that it was I who had lost all the women because of your book and wanted revenge. It upset you. You ordered me to go away. And because I didn't want you to think of me as just another man who'd broken your heart, I made you forget that day, and all the bad things that were wrongly attributed to me." He shut his eyes. "I just thought you should know." He opened his eyes. Selina was frowning deeply.

"Well, thanks a lot!" She said and punched him. "Thanks for nothing!"

"Are you all right?" Sam asked Corrie, standing outside her hotel room door. Her uncle had made himself a permanent part of their entourage and ever since he had, the pair hadn't had a second alone.

Corrie turned. "You shouldn't be in my room. My uncle went to the bar, but that was a long time ago. If he comes back and sees you, bad things could happen and I don't want that. I love you too much."

Sighing, Sam stepped further into the room. "I don't care what things your uncle can do. I just don't. How bad can they be, really?" He put his arms around her and Corrie pushed him away. "No, don't," she said firmly. "That's what caused this. We got too close too fast. We were careless."

Sam shrugged. "So we'll be more careful now. There are places we can go where your uncle won't find out. And even if he does, I'll fight him. Any guy who would make you as miserable as you are right now deserves to be dead."

Corrie put a hand on his cheek. "You're so sweet," she said. "But my uncle can't be killed. He's immortal. You, however, are not. So let's just resume our client-manager relationship and forget that either of us ever saw the other naked. It'll be better for you that way."

"But-" Sam began.

"Goodbye, Sam," she said. "You and the boys better get your instruments together. Your show begins in half an hour and there are record company scouts at this one!"

Sam sighed. "All right," he said. "You've made your point. I'll go." He left and shut the door behind him.

"You don't mean that, do you?" Joshua asked. "Or at least Father wouldn't."

Sam looked up. "Why do you assume that just because Dad acts a certain way, I'm gonna act the same way?"

"Experience," Joshua said. "You two are much too alike for my comfort sometimes."

Sam frowned. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Well," Joshua cleared his throat. "I heard what happened in there. She ended things with you, didn't she?"

Sam nodded. "Well, kind of. Yes."

"And you're not going to accept that, are you?" Joshua asked.

Sam shook his head. "There's no reason for us to break up! The only reason why she said anything is because she's afraid of that uncle of hers. She still likes me and everything. So if he were, you know, gone, then she'd have no reason to want to be separated from me."

"So your plan is to get rid of her uncle, right?" Joshua asked.

Sam nodded. "Well, yeah. What other solution is there?"

"Well," Joshua answered, straightening out the collar of his suit jacket, "You could leave her and her uncle alone and let them sort their mess out for themselves. You don't have to be involved. This is none of your business."

"What?" Sam asked. "How is the happiness of the woman that I love none of my business? You should see her, Joshua. She's miserable and it's all her uncle's fault!"

"But what can you do about it?" Joshua asked. "She's made it very clear that she wants to handle this by herself and you should respect that."

"Why?" Sam asked. "Why should I respect her decision to stay miserable when I can make her feel better?"

"Because as Americans, we have a duty to uphold people's right to be miserable if they choose to be," Joshua said. "If you get involved in this business with Corrie and her uncle, it will upset her and just make things worse for you. What you see as a heroic rescue, she would just see as interference. Why can't you believe her when she says her uncle could cause you harm? Why can't you let her protect you?"

Sam shook his head. "I don't need to be protected by a girl," he said and strode off to the bus that would take the band to the arena.

"Father," Joshua said, appearing beside Damon on the sofa. "We have to talk. It's about Sam." Damon started badly. "Could you warn a guy before you just appear like that?" He asked. He paused. "What about Sam?"

"Well," Joshua said, "a situation has arisen that I don't think I'll be able to handle myself. You remember Sam's lady love Corrie? I believe he brought her to your birthday party."

"Yeah," Damon nodded. "He did. What about her?"

"Well, the easiest way for me to explain it is that she has an uncle who is incredibly possessive of her and upset about her paying attention to men. Because of this uncle, she has decided to end her relationship with Sam and Sam isn't taking it well. I've tried to talk reason with him, but he's got it in his head that he has an obligation to stop Corrie from being unhappy because he loves her, even though she told him explicitly to stay out of the whole situation and now I'm afraid Sam will do something rash that will get him hurt or killed. Can't you talk to him, Father? Please?"

"Well, I would love to, but unlike you, I just can't pop in and out whenever and wherever I like," Damon said. "Where is Sam now? Greece?"

"Yes," Joshua nodded. "Greece. I believe they have a show in an arena near the Parthenon tonight or something."

"Well, I would love to go and put Sam in his place, but I really don't have the time," Damon said. "I'm a little busy at the moment."

"'A little busy'?" Joshua asked incredulously. "Father, what could be more important than the welfare of your son?! He could very well get himself killed over this!"

"Yes, well Lucy has decided that she wants to become human," Damon said shortly. "And she's been doing things that are more risky by the day to make sure that happens. And that's even after she and your mother talked and your mother assured her that they'd find some way to let her experience a human life as a Christmas present. So you can appreciate the fact that I've got a lot to deal with at the moment here."

"No, I can't!" Joshua burst out. "I will never be able to understand how you can show more concern for a woman that you're dating than your own child!"

"Well, I'm sorry," Damon shot back. "But when Sam left, he ceased to be my number one priority, and how could he be? He left! He's gone! Yes, we write letters to each other and emails, but that's not the same as living in the same house and seeing each other on a daily basis. Why should I be expected to put Sam first when he just went off and left me alone? Lucy saved me from that and I owe her. Joshua, please accept that Sam has his life and I have mine and stop trying to make me feel guilty for being happy. Do you think you can do that for me? Please?"

"All right, Father," Joshua said, his voice shaking. "But I've tried my best to dissuade Sam and if anything happens to him as a result of a lack of reinforcement from you, whatever it is will be on your head."

"Talented boys, aren't they?" Corrie turned away from the stage to face her uncle. "Yes," she said. "They are. That's why I decided to give them a chance. They're good at what they do and people deserve to enjoy their talents."

Hades gave her a piercing glance. "Am I correct when I say that their music isn't the only talent of theirs you're aware of? How often have you visited the bed of the young man who's doing the singing? And don't lie to me. It won't do you any good."

"All right," she said, her eyes looking into his. "Often. Until you showed your face, we were together every evening. But since he doesn't deserve to be smote, I told him it would be best to end things."

"Now why would you do that if you love him, Persephone?" Hades asked. "Why not stay with him and let him love you?" He reached out and moved a dark strand of her hair off her face.

"Because you couldn't stand that," Corrie spat, flinching at his use of her real name. "You don't like seeing me with other men and you'd hurt him."

"No," Hades shook his head. "I wouldn't." He looked out the curtain at the small crowd come to watch the band. "In fact, I'm feeling particularly generous at the moment. Inclined to help. If the boys are as talented as you say, they deserve a much bigger crowd than this. I could make that happen. Will you let me?"

"What are you going to do?" Corrie asked nervously.

"Ah-ah, dear," Hades said, shaking his finger. "I don't want to ruin the surprise. You'll find out tomorrow."

Sam was roughly shaken awake the next morning. He sniffed and looked at his terrified band mates, who were standing over him. "What?" He asked woozily. He sniffed. "Is something burning?"

"Yeah," one of them said. "You are."

Sam looked down at his pants and let out a shriek, moving away from the open window. "Shut the curtain!" He demanded. "Now!" His band mates quickly shut the curtains. "Are you all right?" They asked.

"Maybe not," Sam said. He took the knife he'd cut apples with the night before and handed it to the drummer. "Cut yourself with this," he said.

"What? Are you insane?" His friend asked.

"Cut yourself with the knife!" Sam yelled forcefully. And as his band mates watched in horror, the drummer cut himself and Sam pounced on his wrist, sucking greedily. When he finally stopped, someone had to call an ambulance.

"How did this happen to me?" Sam asked himself. He grabbed his phone and called his father. "Dad? I have a problem. A big problem."

"What kind of problem?" Damon asked.

"Dad," Sam said, "I don't know how it happened, but...I'm a vampire."