Elijah looked at his father in disgust. "You can't kill her, Father. And I won't either."

"Yes, you will," Mikael answered, his eyes narrowing. "You will do as I say. There's no reason not to."

"Yes, there is!" Elijah said. He put his arms around Lucy. "You can't kill her. She's just a girl! And she's my niece besides."

Mikael froze. "Your niece? How, pray tell, did that happen?"

"She's Niklaus' daughter," Elijah answered. "With Selina."

A grin spread over Mikael's face. "All the more reason to end her life," he said. "She's the daughter of my bastard son and the murderess I've been waiting many years to kill." He looked at Lucy. "Not exactly the same thing, but killing her would be a start."

"Selina won't let you," Elijah said. "She'll fight for her children."

Mikael shrugged. "All right, I'll make you a deal: if you talk to that wife of yours and she agrees to give herself up to me, I will spare the life of this girl."

His mouth twisted, Elijah reluctantly drove to his and Selina's house, and the three of them went inside just as Selina put Colin down for a nap. She came into the living room and saw them. "What's going on?" She asked. She glared at Mikael, then looked at Elijah. "What's he doing here?"

"We found Lucy," Elijah said, trying to stay calm.

"And you have a choice," Mikael added. "She's killed several people. You know this means I have to end her life. But I suppose that if you're willing to give yourself up to me, dear, I might be willing to spare her. What do you say?"

Selina's lip curled with disgust. She did her best to stop her body from shaking. She didn't want to show Mikael how mad she was.

"Well?" He thundered. "Answer me!"

"I won't!" She said with feeling. "I'm not gonna give myself up!"

"Why not?" Mikael asked. "Isn't it your duty as her mother to protect her? Isn't her life more important than yours? Or are you just being selfish?"

"I'm not being selfish," Selina shook her head. "Because everyone has a right to fight for their lives. Everyone, including me. Now, just because I don't want to give up myself to you to save Lucy doesn't mean I don't love her. I do. But in case you haven't noticed, she's not a baby anymore. She's strong, she's intelligent, and she's perfectly capable of fighting for herself. She doesn't need me to do it for her." She looked at Lucy. "Do you?"

"I don't know," Lucy said. She sniffled.

"Yes, you do!" Selina said. "Honey, you just killed I don't know how many people, all right? It must have been a lot if Officer Krupke here is on your tail."

"Yeah," Lucy said softly. "It was quite a few. And I'm not proud of it."

"So?" Selina asked. "No one said you had to be proud of it. But you want to live, don't you? Or am I mistaken about that? Cause if I am, you can just tell him to kill you right now!"

"No," Lucy said, her voice shaky. "I don't wanna die. I want to live."

"Look me in the eye and tell me that," Selina said. "I don't know if I believe you."

Lucy looked up at her mother, wiped her eyes, wiped her nose, and said, still quietly, "I don't want to die."

Selina sighed, looking at Mikael. "Oh, well," she said. "I guess you can take her. She doesn't seem to want to live after all." As Mikael made a move to take Lucy's arm, Lucy yanked her arm away, charged at her mother and with a growl, shoved her to the floor. "How dare you?" She said to Selina. "How dare you just give me up like that? I don't want to die! I want to live! And if you think that you can just send me off with him, than fuck you! Deciding whether I live or die is not your place, nor is it his. It's all up to me."

A grin spread over Selina's face. "Exactly," she nodded. "That's what I wanted to see. I wanted to see you fight for yourself. I knew you had it in you." She glared at Mikael. "As you can see, there's no one here for you and there never will be, so I think you should go. That would be best."

Mikael opened his mouth and shut it a few times, and then looked at Elijah. "Son..." he began, but his voice trailed off.

"I think they're right, Father," Elijah said. "You need to go. You need to go and never come back." He looked at Lucy. "Do you want to stay here, or would you like me to take you back to Damon's?"

"I think I want to go home," Lucy said. "I've been through enough and I just...I want to go home."

Elijah nodded. "All right, let's go." He glared at his father. "And when I come back, I don't want you to be here." He paused. "In fact, why don't you come with us, and I'll drop you wherever you want?"

Mikael looked between Selina and Lucy, his eyes narrowing. "All right," he said. "I'll let this go...for now. But it's not over." And, straightening his spine, he left with Elijah and Lucy and Selina stood alone in the living room, feeling lucky that she and Lucy were still alive.

Damon heard a knock at the front door and opened it, stepping back immediately, shocked to see Lucy, who was usually so together, panting and throwing herself into his arms.

"What's the matter?" He asked her, running his fingers through her hair. "Cookie Monster, what happened?"

"I've done something I'm not proud of," Lucy told him. "You could say I'm a bad person and you wouldn't be off the mark."

"Oh, I'm sure you aren't," he assured her. "What could you possibly have done?"

Lucy looked at him, her blue eyes serious. "Have you been watching the news?" She asked. "About all the deaths lately?"

"Well, yeah," Damon nodded. "It's probably nothing, though. Just a vampire with a screw loose. Someone will take care of them. Don't worry about it."

Lucy shook her head. "That wasn't just some vampire!" She said. "It was me! I did it! I killed every single person! Uncle Elijah's father caught me and he was gonna kill me!"

"Wait..." Damon said, looking at her in shock. "You mean it was you who...oh, my god."

"I know," Lucy nodded. "Horrible, right? Makes me feel really bad for judging you before. I had no right, did I?"

Damon hugged her to him. "That doesn't matter," he said. "What matters is that you're okay."

She nodded. "Uncle Elijah's father told Mom that if she handed herself over to him, he'd let me go."

Damon froze and held Lucy at arms' length. "So your mother is dead now? Please tell me that's not true!"

"No!" Lucy shook her head. "Everyone is okay. But it was still one of the scariest things I've ever experienced."

"I don't doubt it was," Damon said. "I couldn't imagine going through something like that. But at least you're okay now. That's what's important."

"I'm not okay, exactly," Lucy said. "The first guy I killed, that activated my werewolf gene. Not that the guy didn't deserve it of course, but still. And that means we have to have a plan for when I turn. Cause I can't be around you then. I could hurt you and I don't want that. It would just hurt me so much if I hurt you."

"Oh, relax," Damon said. "Your dad's got the cure for a werewolf bite inside him. If you ever bite me, all we gotta do is ask him for some of his blood and I'll be all better! There is nothing to worry about!"

"You seem very sure of yourself," Lucy said. "I wish I could be that confident. But realistically, how much blood would Dad be willing to give you before you get bitten one too many times and he decides you're not worth his blood anymore? Cause I'm telling you that it could happen. I want to be prepared for that."

"Why do you automatically assume you'll bite me if you turn?" Damon asked. "There are ways to avoid that. Why don't you ask your brother and your sister for help before you just give up all hope and assume everything is gonna be bad?"

"It's easier to assume that things are gonna go bad," Lucy replied. "It saves time and makes you more cautious."

"Even so," Damon said. "Please just try and call your brother and sister. For me?"

Lucy sighed. "Fine," she said. "I'll call them. But I doubt it'll do much good."

"That's the spirit!" Damon said with a grin. Lucy just rolled her eyes and took the phone off the hook, taking it to her and Damon's bedroom. She shut the door behind her, looked down at the phone, took a deep breath and dialed Adrian and Helene's number. It rang a few times before someone picked it up.

"Hello?" Lenora's voice said. "Aunt Lucy, is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me," Lucy replied. "Sweetie, I need to talk to your daddy. Is he home?"

"No," Lenora said immediately. "Mommy said he went on a vacation. We've tried to call him and stuff, but he won't answer the phone."

"Why would your father go somewhere without your mother?" Lucy asked. "That's not like him."

"Mommy said he was nervous about the new baby she's gonna have," Lenora said. "I'm gonna be a big sister!"

"Well, that's wonderful!" Lucy said. "I'm so happy for you and your mommy and daddy. Could you tell your mom that?"

"Yes," Lenora nodded. "What did you need to talk to Daddy about? Can I help?"

Lucy sighed. "That's very sweet, but I don't think you can. I had an accident and that made my werewolf gene be activated. I need help with getting used to it and I thought your daddy could do that for me. I guess I'll have to call Aunt Roxie instead."

"You're lucky you even know about your werewolf gene," Lenora said. "I know I have one, but Mommy won't let Daddy teach me anything about it cause she's scared it will make me do bad things."

"Well, she's not entirely wrong about that," Lucy said. "In order to make my gene active, I had to kill someone. You don't want to kill people, do you?"

"Well, no," Lenora said. "But I don't think Daddy's killed that many people. He's a werewolf and he's still a nice person. I don't know why Mommy won't let me be one too. Or do any vampire stuff. I just have to drink blood from bags and when Damon and I were in the past I had blood from a person and it was a lot yummier. Just don't tell Mommy I said that because she's not supposed to know."

"I'll keep your secret," Lucy said to her. "Don't worry."

"Are you gonna call Aunt Roxie now?" Lenora asked. "Or do you want to talk to my mommy?"

"Is she nearby?" Lucy asked. "I don't need to talk to her if she's not nearby."

"She's in her bedroom," Lenora said. "Or the bathroom. She gets sick a lot now." She paused. "Just a minute." She took the phone away from her ear and walked to the bathroom where Helene had camped out. Even though the door was closed, Lenora could still hear her mother being sick.

"Mommy? Aunt Lucy is on the phone. She wants to talk to you." Lenora knocked on the door. "Can you hear me, Mommy?" There was a moment of silence, a flush, and then the door opened. Helene was pale, her eyes had circles under them and her hair was scraggly and damp. "What did you say?" She asked, pushing her long brown hair out of her eyes. "Whatever it is, can you handle it yourself? Mommy doesn't feel well."

"Okay," Lenora told her. "Sorry, Mommy. Want some juice?"

Helene shrugged. "What's the point? I'll probably just throw it up the second I drink it."

Lenora put the phone to her ear. "Mommy's not feeling good, Aunt Lucy," Lenora said. "She doesn't want to talk to anybody."

"Well, that's okay," Lucy said. "I only wanted to say 'congratulations' on the baby, that's all. I think I'll hang up and call Aunt Roxie now. Bye, sweetie."

"Bye," Lenora said and turned off the phone. Helene locked herself in the bathroom again and Lenora went to hang up the phone. She then went back to the bathroom one last time. "That was Aunt Lucy," she said. "She wanted to tell you 'congratulations' about the baby."

"Well when the baby isn't making me ill, I'll have to call her back and thank her," Helene called back.

"I'll leave you alone now," Lenora said. "Yell if you need anything." She went up to her room where her new black cat sat up curled on her bed.

"I'm so lonely," she said, stroking him. "My daddy is gone, my mommy is sick, and I don't have anyone else to talk to."

Then, something happened that shocked her. The cat spoke. "If you promise you won't tell anyone, you can talk to me. And just a request. Would you keep that dog of yours away from me? He's getting way too interested."

Lenora looked at him in surprise. "Oh, my goodness! You're talking! I never had an animal that talked before!"

"Where are you going?" Vince asked Roxie as he watched her grab her coat.

"I'm going to work," Roxie said, pointing to the clock. "It's time, isn't it?"

"Enid called this morning," Vince said. "She said we both got the day off today."

"Why would she do that?" Roxie asked.

"Well, it's because we've been such good sports about keeping what she did to Joey a secret," he said. "She wanted to thank us."

Roxie stepped away from the coat rack. "So we have the day off. What are we going to do?"

Vince shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "I'm not so good at thinking up family bonding stuff. I mean, if it were spring, we could get the kids little bikes and go on a ride, but its too cold for that now."

"Seriously?" Roxie asked. "You want to get the kids bikes?"

"Yeah," Vince nodded. "Why shouldn't we? They have 'em for little kids."

"They're only two!" Roxie pointed out. "They could hurt themselves!"

"It's not like we'd let them out on the road yet," Vince said. "They'd just stay in the yard."

Roxie sighed. "Well, I guess it would be okay if they stayed in the yard and we watched them the whole time."

Vince grinned. "Look at you worrying about our kids! It's so nice."

Roxie tried not to look hurt. "Of course I worry about them!" She said. "I'm their mother!"

Just then, Joey came running into the living room, his brown hair tousled. He let out a yell and headed in the direction of the fireplace. Vince managed to pick him up before he reached it and split his skull open on the brick. "Hey, hey, hey!" He said gently. "You're supposed to be taking a nap."

Joey shook his head, displaying a full set of pearly white teeth. "No nap!"

"Why can't you be more like your sister?" Vince asked. "She never tries to skip naps."

"That's because I told her beauty rest will make her pretty," Roxie said. "She believed me. She wouldn't skip it if you asked her to, but that tactic doesn't work with boys."

"Well, I guess we only have one choice then," Vince said, looking down at his son. "I guess we have no choice but to go outside and let you run around in the snow until you're tired." He looked at Roxie. "It's a shame you can't come with us."

"What? In the cold and the muck and the ice?" Roxie asked. She shuddered. "I'm glad to stay in here, thank you."

Vince picked up Joey. "Well, all right," he said. "But you're missing out." They went outside and Roxie sat on the sofa next to a window and watched them play together in the snow.

While they were outside, the time for the twins' nap ended and Addie wandered into the living room, rubbing her eye and clutching her blanket in one of her tiny fists. When she saw her mother, she dropped her blanket and grinned, running over to climb on the sofa. "Me pretty?" She asked.

"Of course," Roxie said, taking her in her arms. "You're very pretty." They sat and watched the boys for a little while longer and then the phone rang. Roxie left Addie sitting on the sofa and went to answer it. "Hello?"

"Roxie, it's Enid. I know I promised you and Vince a day off today, but something's come up that I need you here for."

"What is it?" Roxie asked. "Is something wrong?"

"Not wrong necessarily," Enid said. "Your sister is here. She says her werewolf gene is activated and needs your help about what to do."

Roxie rolled her eyes. "Why did she go to Enid's?" She asked herself. "Why couldn't she have just come to the house and asked? "All right," Roxie said. "I'll be there in a few minutes."

She hung up the phone and grabbed Addie. "We're gonna to go mommy's work," she said. "Won't that be fun?" She got coats on herself and Addie and after leaving a note for Vince and Joey, drove off to Enid's.

"Good, you're here," Enid said, meeting her at the door.

"Yeah," Roxie nodded. "Where is Lucy? Is she causing trouble?"

"No," Enid shook her head. "I just don't think she quite knows what to do with herself. She's over at the bar."

Roxie looked in the direction of the bar and saw her little sister on a barstool, twirling a straw in a glass of cherry Coke and looking deflated. "Hey," she said, coming to sit next to her after handing Addie to Enid. "What are you doing? That's not even a drink!"

"Well, what does one drink when they're reevaluating how they're gonna live their entire life?" Lucy asked. "I can't even be around Damon without worrying about whether or not I'll kill him."

"That's only once a month!" Roxie said. "It's hardly anything at all. And when you change, it's only for a few hours."

"Easy for you to say," Lucy said. "Do you have to worry about killing Vince? I don't think so! The two of you are the same freaking species!"

"I think you're looking at this the wrong way," Roxie said. "If you think of it in a more positive light, it won't seem so bad. It looks to me like you're just dwelling on the bad stuff."

"Oh, really?" Lucy asked. "What good stuff is there? Tell me."

"Well, honestly," Roxie said, "if someone told me I could only be one thing and I had to choose between being a vampire and being a werewolf, I'd pick being a werewolf. Because you age properly, so you can set up roots, you can have children and a family without trouble, you can eat whatever you want, you don't have to worry about the effects of sunlight...I could go on and on!"

"How does that help me?" Lucy asked. "Cause I am both and there's no way to fix it!"

"It seems like you just want to be negative about this, even though it won't help anything," Roxie said. "Look around you. Everyone around here is either a werewolf themselves or a person with werewolf potential. And they're all fine! They live their lives to the fullest and they've accepted their lycanthropy as part of them and you can too. It's the only way you're gonna be able to live with yourself. I don't know how else I can help you."

Just then, Klaus walked into the bar. "Well, look at that!" Roxie grinned. "It's Dad. Why don't you go talk to him? Maybe he can succeed where I failed and actually make you feel better about this whole thing."

Lucy sighed, finished her drink and then hesitantly walked over to her father. "Daddy?" She said. "Can we talk?"

Klaus turned and started when he saw her. "Lucy?" he asked. "Love, what are you doing here?"

"I don't know," Lucy sighed. "I came because I thought it would make me feel better about getting my gene activated if I was among actual werewolves, you know? But instead, it just made me feel worse. It hasn't helped at all."

"Well," he said. "Why don't you come home with me and we'll see what we can do."

Lucy nodded. "All right. Let's go."