Selina slammed one of Elissavetta's porcelain plates on the floor, making it shatter into a million tiny pieces. And then her mother's little Dresden shepherdess. Then she emptied out the china cabinet and broke all those dishes too, but when she held a red Ming vase over her head, Elijah felt the need to step in. "Don't you throw that," he said. "I've had it for years. It means a lot to me!"

"Do I look like I care?" Selina asked, grabbing him by the collar.

"No," he shook his head. She threw something else on the floor just as Gregory came in. "I help," he said and pushed a plate on the floor, then when Selina smiled at him and patted him on the head, he pushed down another one.

"Not you too!" Elijah said. Then they heard crying.

"Great!" Elijah threw his hands up. "The two of you woke Laura!"

"Would you take care of her?" Selina asked without looking up. "Thanks a lot."

Elijah rolled his eyes and went upstairs where poor little Laura was crying with all her might. "It's all right," he said, picking her up and sitting down in the rocking chair with her. "Your mother is mad at me and she's acting insane, but she'll be over it soon...I hope. I don't mind that so much. She has every right to be angry at me, at least for a little while, but to encourage your brother to do the same sort of behavior..." He sighed. "I didn't mean to do what I did," he said. "Your uncle loved your mother too, but thanks to me, he lost her. I didn't tell him about my part in her disappearance right away, so he went on for years thinking that she had just decided to up and leave him without so much as a real goodbye and it upset him. Years later, I saw your mother again. I was still in love with her and she was basking in the success of a ridiculous book about how women should live their lives without love because love was just messy and got in the way. Now there was a time I would have agreed with that. A very long span of time, as a matter of fact. But your mother, she changed my whole perspective. Instead of encouraging her to be lonely, all I wanted to do every time I saw her was help her heal. And it worked until your uncle tricked her into believing that I was aiding him in ruining her, thus making me as bad as all the other men she'd dated. She ordered me to go after that and I agreed that it would be best, but not before I got rid of every bad memory of us. I initially tricked myself into believing that I did it to save her the pain, but I did it just as much to save myself, maybe even more so. I wanted her to still like me, so just in case we had the opportunity to give our relationship one more try, she'd be willing and we wouldn't have to go through the mess of fighting and making up again." He sighed. Laura was staring up at him, seeming absorbed in what he was saying.

"But It didn't work, I guess," he said. "I should have just let her remember, like I did the first time I sent her away. Oh, well. What's done has been done and now all I can do is wait, I guess."

Just then, there was a knock on Laura's bedroom door. Then Selina opened it and came in. "I thought you'd be in here," she said to him. "I have to feed Laura now."

Elijah nodded and handed her over. "I guess I'll go and clean up the kitchen."

"There's no need," Selina said. "I already did that. It was my mess, so cleaning it up was my responsibility."

Elijah nodded. "All right," he said. "If you need me, I'll be in the library with Gregory."

Selina nodded. "Fine," she said. "Whatever." He sighed and left, going to Gregory's room. "Would you like to come and read with me?" He asked.

Gregory nodded, got up off the floor, took Elijah's hand and the two of them went to the office to read a book together.

After Selina fed Laura, instead of putting her back in her bassinet, she brought her into the living room and put her on a blanket on the floor. "I have something I need to say," she said. "And I can say it safely out here because your father has gone to his office and it takes him forever to come out once he's gone in there." She sighed. "The fact is, I guess I'm not really so mad at him anymore. I mean, yeah, in a sense he lied to me and manipulated my feelings just to make himself look good, but really, how does that make him worse than any of the other guys I've dated? It makes him exactly the same, in a sense, not all the way, but a part of me finds that comforting. Sometimes, he seems so moral and good that I forget he's just a guy, you know? A guy who's more highly evolved, but still, a guy, and it's refreshing to see him act like it once in awhile. Not that I'd want him to be such a guy all the time, but once in a blue moon doesn't hurt. And he does seem genuinely sorry for what he did. I believe that. I'll forgive him in a day or two. Just to make it clear that he shouldn't do this to me again. That's the thing about men, Laura. You've got to have principles. You've got to have standards. You can't just go weak at the knees every time they flash muscles, white teeth and wavy dark hair at you and say a few pretty words." She rubbed Laura's tummy and Laura gurgled and spit up. Selina wiped her off and then took her back to her room to change her clothes.

"Well look at you," Damon said as he walked into Lucy's studio and found her sketching what seemed to be a picture of the thing that had attacked her. "You're sketching. I forgot you did that, what with your wanting to be human so bad and all. I thought you'd forgotten how to do normal things."

Lucy looked up at him. "Do you swear that Mom said she would think about doing something that will allow me to experience life as a human for my Christmas present? You're not just making that up?"

"No," Damon shook his head. "Lucy, I am not making that up. Why do you think I would do something like that to you?"

"Because you're mad at me," Lucy muttered. "It would be the perfect way to get me back, wouldn't it?"

"But it would accomplish nothing," Damon said. "And unfortunately, I don't have time to be that lazy. I have to fly off to Greece for a few days and if you swear that you'll do nothing but paint while I'm gone, you can stay here."

"Oh, no!" Lucy said, standing up. "Of course I'll be coming with you. What do you need to go to Greece for?"

Damon sighed. "You have to promise you'll handle my next remark like a grown up and not say anything smart, but Sam called and told me that he thinks he's become a vampire."

Lucy's jaw dropped. "What? How? Have you told Mom about this? It'll make her just...it'll drive her nuts!"

Damon shook his head. "This just isn't something I'm going to tell your mother over the phone," he said. "When we get to Greece and find Sam, I'm going to bring him home and that's when I'm going to tell your mother."

"Maybe I should tell her," Lucy said. "It might be easier to hear coming from me."

Damon shook his head. "That's sweet of you to offer, Cookie Monster, but I can tell her. It's all right."

"I'll go and pack some things. We should probably go as fast as possible, shouldn't we?"

"Yeah," Damon nodded. "We should."

"Oh, Sammy," Corrie said when she finally saw him. "I'm so sorry. I knew he'd do something like this to you."

"It's not so bad," Sam said. He let go of the woman he was drinking from and sent her on her way. "Worse could have happened."

"How can you say that?" Corrie exclaimed. "To be turned into something you probably don't believe in, much less think could be real...I can't imagine what that feels like!"

"Actually, I've believed in vampires my whole life," Sam said. "My dad's one. And my mom. And my uncle. My brother is the only one who wasn't and that's because he was born before Mom and Dad turned and that was more than a hundred years ago."

"Wait," Corrie said. "So your parents are vampires?"

"Yeah," Sam nodded. He went to his suitcase and pulled out the photograph of his parents that he always carried with him. "There they are," he said. "That was taken thirty years ago, I think."

"Wow," Corrie said. "They look so young. If I would have just seen them, I never would have guessed they were your parents." She looked up at him. "And they have blue eyes, just like you. How funny."

"Why would that be funny?" Sam asked.

"Well, back years ago," Corrie explained, "you know, in ancient Greece when people actually believed in us, it was the blue eyed people that were always thought to be vampires. That's probably why my uncle did what he did to you. But you're really not upset about it?"

Sam scoffed. "Oh, please," he said. "I'm not. It'll finally make me even with my sister Lucy. She was born a vampire! But my mom, she's the one who might have a problem with it. She always thought I was gonna be her special human guy and now that's been blown to hell. But really. I'm all right with it. I swear."

"All right," Corrie said skeptically. "If you're sure."

She left him and caught up with her uncle. "You are so lucky!" She said to him. "Sam doesn't seem fazed at all by your trick. How could you do that to him?"

"How could I not?" Hades asked. "He encroached on my territory. I have every right to do what I did."

"I may have to live with you six months out of the year, but I am not your territory!" Corrie exclaimed.

Hades just grinned. "What month is it?" He asked.

"November," Corrie said quietly.

Hades nodded. "Exactly. That mean that for another...four months, you have to do as I say and you cannot protest anything. As for what I've done to young Sam, it doesn't seem to have caused him much harm and who knows? This might be the best thing that ever happened to this band."

"What are the two of you doing here?" Sam asked a few hours later when Damon and Lucy strode into his hotel room.

"What do you mean 'what are we doing here?" Damon asked. "You called me up and told me that you thought you'd become a vampire! Did you think I was just going to ignore that?"

"Well, no," Sam shook his head and looked sourly at Lucy. "But why did you have to bring her? Did you figure you'd mix business with pleasure?"

"No," Lucy said. "I just wanted to see you and support you in your transition. Is there something wrong with that?"

"No!" Sam said in genuine surprise. "Is that why you really came?"

She nodded, looking affronted. "Yes!"

"Well, I'm sorry," he said. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Lucy said. "Now, pack some stuff. We have to take you home for a few days."

"But I can't go anywhere!" Sam protested. "We're in the middle of a tour! We have shows to do!"

"Well, you won't do your adoring fans a lot of good if you have a daytime show and burn to a crisp on stage because you don't have a daylight ring," Lucy said. "That's why we need to take you home. So we can get you acclimated, get you a ring...and tell Mom what happened to you."

"Do we really have to tell Mom?" Sam asked. "Wouldn't she be happier if she didn't know?"

"I wouldn't go that way if I were you," Damon said. "When she and I were separated after I got back from the war and I got involved with the woman who turned me, I thought it would be best not to tell your mother about her either and, as you know, that really fucked us up."

"You being with another woman and me turning into a vampire are two totally different things," Sam said. "As you can see, I've turned but I'm managing it fine, don't you think? Therefore, it is unnecessary to tell Mom and worry her a whole bunch when there really is nothing for her to worry about."

"You were feeding from a person," Damon said. "Consider me worried. Or close to being worried."

"Feeding from actual people is a bad habit," Lucy said.

"Then what am I supposed to do?" Sam asked.

"Use blood bags," Damon said. "You get the benefits of consuming human blood without the problem of arousing suspicion every time you feed."

"Dad, we travel city to city," Sam pointed out. "How am I supposed to get my hands on a steady supply of blood bags? I think it would just be easier for me to take blood from my groupies, don't you? I mean, it's not like they wouldn't be willing, and I'd be very good about making them forget."

"We'll talk more about it when we get home," Damon said. "In the meantime, get your stuff. We need to head back to the airport."

"What's going on?" Corrie asked, striding into the room. When she saw Damon, she stopped. "Hi," she said. "Sam didn't tell me you were coming."

"Well, that's because he didn't know," Damon said. "His sister and I have to take him home to attend to certain things now that he's in the condition that he's in, so would you mind doing whatever it is you have to do in order to get the band's shows postponed while we do that?"

"Oh, of course," Corrie nodded. "And I'm really sorry about that, by the way. When he and I got together, I had no idea that it would lead to something like this happening to him. I guess we should have kept things slow, shouldn't we?"

"Well, I don't blame you for being fast," Damon said. "Stuff like that must be genetic and he probably couldn't help himself."

"That's a compliment for you," Sam told Corrie. "I think." He stood up. "I think I'll go and pack now." He went and came back dragging a half-open suitcase full of wrinkly clothes with him a few minutes later. "All right," he said. "Let's go."

"My god, Sam!" Lucy said, looking horrified. "Please tell me that's not how you pack all the time."

"What's wrong with the way I pack?" Sam asked, dropping the bag with a thump. "Does it offend you somehow?"

"Yes," Lucy nodded. "It does!" She threw aside the lid of the suitcase and flinched. "How long has it been since you've done laundry?" She asked him, gingerly taking out his wrinkled clothes and folding them before putting them back in his suitcase, with the exception of his underwear, which she refused to touch.

Sam shrugged. "I don't know. A week, maybe. They give us new clothes for every show. Washing is practically unnecessary for me."

Lucy looked at Damon. "You're so neat!" she said, then looked sorrowfully at Sam. "How is it that he's such a slob?"

Damon shrugged. "Don't look at me. I didn't raise him."

"And there's the problem!" Lucy said. She looked at Sam. "Be neater. It'll be better for you in the long run."

"Yes, Mother," Sam grumbled.

"Now that we've wrung all the water we can out of that particular problem, can we focus on the bigger problem at hand?" Damon asked. "Sam, grab your bags and let's head to the airport."

"All right," Sam said. "But I'm not sitting next to Lucy."

"Thank you for coming," Elijah said when he opened the front door and saw Alistair standing on the other side. "We need to have a talk."

"What about?" Alistair asked, stepping inside. "Has something happened?"

"Well, you remember in the sixties when Selina wrote that book and I decided it would be a good idea to go see her and cheer her up because the only reason someone would write something like that was if they were deeply troubled, but then Niklaus found out and got jealous, even though he was still mad at her for leaving him in '29 and when I decided to move in with her, proceeded to make her think that I had only suggested resuming our physical relationship as a way to control her and ruin her life?"

Alistair nodded. "And then you made her forget everything. I told you that wasn't a good idea. Didn't I tell you that?"

"Yes," Elijah sighed.

"And let me guess," Alistair continued. "She found out what you did and now she's mad at you."

"A bit," Elijah nodded. "What should I do?"

"Well, you have two options, really," Alistair said. "You could either give her her space until she decides she wants to be with you again, which given the situation you're in might be the better choice, or you could do what your brother used to do and bribe her with flowers and candy."

"Well, of course I don't want to try and force her to do anything she's not ready to do," Elijah said. "But then again..." He shut his eyes, picturing the shirt and tiny shorts Selina usually wore for the two seconds before he took them off her at bedtime and how she looked after he took them off.

"Elijah?" Alistair's voice suddenly snapped him out of his reverie. "What?"

"Are you all right?" Alistair asked. "Are you still with me? What have you decided?"

"I think I need to go to the store," Elijah said.

"Are you sure?" Alistair asked.

"Yes," Elijah nodded. "I'm very sure."

"Well in that case, you shouldn't need to go all the way to the store," Alistair said, and at that moment, a dozen pink roses and a heart-shaped box of caramels appeared. "There you go," he said. "But you can't say I didn't warn you if things don't go the way you planned."

"Thank you for the warning, Alistair," Elijah said. "I've prepared myself for that."

Just then, Alistair's phone rang. "Yes?" He asked. He listened for a little while and then took the phone away from his ear. "It's Helene," he said. "Apparently, Damon and Lucy have showed up at her house with Sam. And he's a vampire. They want her to make a ring for him."

"That's something Selina will not be happy to hear about," Elijah said.

"Yes," Alistair nodded. "What you did might not seem so bad after that. But it's not your place to tell her."

"No, of course not!" Elijah shook his head. "I would never. So does Helene need you to go and help her?"

"No," Alistair shook his head. "She's just keeping me up to date. I suppose I could stay here until Selina comes. Where did she go?"

"She and Laura went out to the market," Elijah said. "She said she needed to get some more stuff for the bakery. She goes about two or three times a week."

Alistair nodded. "So, do you want me to stay?"

"Yes," Elijah nodded. "I do."

"I have to wear a ring?" Sam exclaimed in horror. "You can't be serious! I'm a guy and I'm not even married! I'm a rock star! I have a certain image I want to project!"

"And what image is that?" Helene asked.

"Wild and dangerous!" Sam replied. "And I can't do that if I'm wearing a ring. That's just gonna scare all the girls away."

"You honestly believe that?" Damon asked. "Clearly you didn't live with me long enough."

"Clearly the entire time I did live with you, you spent all your time missing Mom," Sam said. "And even now that you aren't doing that anymore, you didn't really make a big effort to branch out." He eyed Lucy sourly.

"Will you let that go?" Lucy exclaimed. "All the sour looks in the world won't change anything. And besides, you have Corrie, so I don't know what you're fussing about. It was your screwing around with her that made this happen. Or am I wrong about that?"

Sam launched himself at Lucy and the two of them began rolling around on the floor, punching and kicking. "Hey, hey, hey!" Damon said, pulling Sam off his sister. "That's enough! I don't want you two fighting with each other over this, all right? Shit happens and we're dealing with it. It doesn't matter whose fault it is or what led to it, all right?"

"Fine," Sam said.

"Now," Damon cleared his throat. "Helene and I will go see about making your ring. Lucy will come with us and when we get it made, we'll come back here."

"What do I do?" Sam asked.

"You sit," Damon told him. They left him alone in the living room and he stayed that way for a little while until a little girl poked her head in the room. "Hi!" She said, walking in the rest of the way. "I'm Lenora. What's your name?"

"I'm Sam," Sam said. "Where'd you come from?"

"I live here," Lenora told him. "Damon babysits me sometimes. Well, actually all the time."

She sat down next to Sam and he couldn't help noticing how her blonde hair was pushed back from her neck and that she had a vein pulsing there, all her blood, pumping away. Before he even realized what he was doing, he'd grabbed her, his teeth grazing her neck, when all of a sudden, he felt the most horrible pain he'd ever felt in his life. He let her go as he fell to the floor, twitching, convulsing and screaming. Lenora watched him and then burst into tears, running for her mother.

"What's wrong?" Helene asked.

"Sam tried to bite me!" Lenora exclaimed. "And then I got scared cause I wanted him to let me go and when I tried to push him off me, he started screaming and fell on the floor and now he's moving all funny!"

"Oh, my god!" Helene said and she and Damon ran after Lenora, finding Sam, as she'd said, clutching his head, convulsing and screaming on the floor.

Helene got down on her knees and put her hands on Sam's body, muttering words to herself and trying to make him be still. When he was finally calm, Helene opened her eyes again. "There we go," she said, letting out her breath.

"Is he gonna be all right?" Damon asked.

"Yeah," Helene nodded. "But it will take time. He got hit with that brain pain spell that I'm sure you're familiar with, only since Lenora's energy is so unfocused and she doesn't know how to perform it properly, the pain that Sam felt was much worse than usual. It would be best to put him to bed for about a week or so and only allow him to move when he absolutely has to. He's very weak now."

Lenora's eyes were big, with tears threatening to spill out. "Mommy? Did I do a bad thing? I didn't mean to hurt him! I just wanted him to let me go!"

"It's okay," Helene said, taking Lenora in her arms. "No one will blame you for doing what you had to in order to protect yourself." But even so, Lenora looked up at Damon. "I'm sorry," she said.

Damon looked down at Lenora for a second, took her hand and kissed it. "It's all right," he said. "These things happen."

"Let's go to the bathroom and take a look in the mirror," Lucy said. "I want to see if we need to put a bandage on you."

"Good idea," Helene said. "Lucy, you go tend to Lenora and Damon, will you help me get Sam to my car? I want to take him to my parents' house. They'll put him up while he recovers and then I can finish his ring."

Damon nodded. "All right. Sounds like a plan." Helene and Damon picked up Sam, whose breathing was shallow and labored, and carried him out to her car. "If you want to come with me, you can," Helene told Damon. "There's room."

Damon nodded. "I think I will, thanks. And do you think your parents would mind if I stayed with him? It would help to have a familiar face around, I think, even if that face isn't one he particularly likes."

"Oh, I'm sure you're exaggerating," Helene said. "And if you aren't, this could get you a lot of brownie points, don't you think? I'm sure that once you explain the situation, my parents would be more than happy to have you. And should I call Selina too so she can come down and see him?"

Damon shook his head. "I don't know if that's a good idea. See, she doesn't even know he's a vampire yet, let alone any of the other stuff. So let's just hold off on bringing Selina into this until Sam has recovered. I'm sure Selina's got enough problems of her own to deal with without us adding onto them."

When Selina got back later that day, she put the stuff from the grocery store in the refrigerator, put Laura in her bed, and then headed to her spare bedroom, freezing when she saw the flowers and candy on her bed. She picked them up and went to Elijah's office.

"What the heck is this?" She asked him, holding up the presents.

"I just thought you'd like those," he said. "You do, don't you?"

"Well, yeah, but come on!" She said. "If you think this will make me like you again, I would have expected you to be more creative. This is the sort of thing that Nicky would do to get on my good side, and surely you're better than him."

"Well, all right," Elijah said. "I've told you I was sorry and got you your favorite roses and your favorite chocolates, and I don't know what else I can do. If you don't want them, just throw them in the trash."

"Fine," Selina said. "Maybe I will!" She strode away from the office and when she was safely in her room, she opened the box of candy and ate half of it before stashing the rest under the bed and putting the roses in a vase. They really were pretty.

"Are you mad at me for what I did to Sam?" Lenora asked Lucy. "It was a accident."

Lucy nodded. "I know it was. But you don't have to feel bad, really. This is just part of Sam's learning process. This will help him learn why it's better to take human blood from blood bags instead of actual people. So, in a weird way, you actually kind of did him a favor."

"I did?" Lenora eyed her skeptically. "But I made him be hurted!"

"Sometimes that has to happen," Lucy told her. "It's called negative reinforcement. Now every time Sam thinks of drinking from a living person, he'll just remember how bad he hurt when he tried to bite you and it will make him stop. So you don't have to worry. You didn't do anything wrong." Lenora gave her a long look and after Lucy ascertained that there was nothing on Lenora that needed to be bandaged up, Lenora went and got a blood bag from the refrigerator, and a lollipop from her bedroom. "Take me to Grandma and Grandpa's, please," she said, holding them up.

"How's Sam?" Lucy asked Helene when she and Lenora arrived with the blood bag and the lollipop.

"He's awake now," she said. "But he's still very weak. Damon's been feeding him blood."

"We brought him another bag," Lenora said.

"Good," Helene said. "I'll take it in to him.

"But I want to," Lenora said. "Mommy, let me!"

Helene sighed. "All right, but be careful. And take Aunt Lucy with you."

Lucy nodded and after asking Helene for directions, went to the room where Alistair and Astrid were keeping Sam. When they entered, Damon, who had dozing in a chair next to Sam's bed, sat up.

"Good, you two are here. Would you mind watching him for a few minutes? I have to run to the bathroom."

"Sure," Lucy said. "No problem."

Damon left and Lenora and Lucy came around the bed. Sam saw Lenora and his eyes widened. He opened his mouth to yell, but Lucy put a hand over it. "Don't scream," she said. "Lenora didn't come to hurt you. She came to say she's sorry. And she brought you some things, too."

Sam gave a barely perceptible nod and Lucy picked Lenora up and put her down on the bed next to him.

"We should probably sit him up as much as we can," Lucy said. She propped Sam up so that he wouldn't choke and Lenora helped him put the blood bag to his lips and as he sucked on it, she smiled. "That's a good job," she said. When the bag was empty, she pulled something out of her pocket. "Now you get this lollipop cause you drinked the blood bag," she said, handing it to him. "My teacher at kindergarten gives us presents when we do good things and that's a good thing."

"You're on your way to living the good life," Lucy said to her brother. "If you keep going on like this, telling Mom is gonna be much easier than we thought."

That night, Elijah heard a knock on his office door when he and Gregory were reading from their book. "Come in," he said.

Selina came in and plunked a cup of hot cider and a piece of pumpkin pie down in front of him. "I just made this," she said. "Tell me if it tastes good."

"You hate me and you're still feeding me?" Elijah asked in surprise. "I don't get it."

Selina shrugged. "Well, just because I'm mad at you, that doesn't mean I should withhold nourishment, or in our case, useless, delicious, sugary junk food, from you. That would just be too cruel." The pie had a dollop of whipped cream on top that came to a point. When Selina was sure Elijah was watching, she put some of the whipped cream on her finger and licked it off slowly. "Wow, that's good," she said.

"Yeah," Elijah replied, keeping his eyes on her. "I bet."

"And by the way," Selina continued, "my back is a little sore from all the lifting and stuff I did today. Would you mind coming in and getting the knots out for me?"

The room was silent for a moment as Selina left the office and then Elijah stood up. "All right, Gregory," he said. "It looks like it's time for you to go to bed."

"Pie," Gregory reminded him.

"Oh, right," Elijah nodded. "Thank you." He ate half the pie and let Gregory have the other half and then let out a yell as he drank the cider too fast and it scalded his mouth. But he got it down, put his dishes in the kitchen, put Gregory to bed and then ran to Selina's spare bedroom, slamming the door behind him and breathing hard.

"What's wrong with you?" Selina asked. "Are you okay?"

"Yes," Elijah nodded. "I'm fine." Then his eyes locked on her. She was wearing only a bra and her panties.

"Just what did you have in mind for when I got here?" He asked her.

"I told you," she said. "My back is sore and you can't really do a good job remedying that if I'm wearing a lot of clothes, can you?"

"Well, all right," he said. "I'll take what I can get." He noticed that the flowers he'd given her were in a vase by the window. "I thought they'd brighten up the room," she explained.

He grinned. "Well, they do. It was a good idea." Then he watched as she climbed onto the bed and lay herself out flat on her stomach. Tentatively, Elijah began massaging her shoulders and down her back, trying to stay calm, especially when she began making sounds that he'd only heard her make during sex. When he finally got down to her bottom, the part of her that he most wanted to touch, she said, "All right, I'm good."

"Wait, what?" He asked. "Are you sure?"

"Yes," Selina said. "Thanks, I feel so much better now." She rolled onto her back and then sat up, her unhooked bra doing absolutely nothing to cover up her chest, which he was also looking at with longing, even though he kept telling himself not to. "You can go to bed now. Have a good night's sleep."

"How can you expect me to go to our bed alone and have a good night's sleep after what I just did?" He asked. "You really are a glutton for punishment, aren't you? You make it seem like you're angry with me, yet you think nothing of keeping the flowers I gave you, or asking me to give you a massage, but when you get what you want, you just send me away, thinking nothing of how I'm going to feel afterward!"

"Oh, it's not like you got a raw deal," Selina said. "You seemed to be having a damn good time back there and I made you pie!"

"Just tell me one thing," Elijah said. "Are you mad at me anymore, or not?"

She sighed. "No, I guess I'm not. And I guess I haven't been since after I broke all the dishes and stuff. I only did all the rest of it just to make sure we don't ever have a repeat of what you did." She sighed. "I guess I'll come to bed now." She started to get off the bed and put on her bathrobe, and he said, "Oh, don't bother. I'll just go get Laura's monitor and we can spend tonight in here. That will be easier, don't you think?"