"Hey," Selina knocked on the side of Felicity's open bedroom door. "That was Stefan on the phone, Nicky. He wanted to know if you were still up to going out today."

Klaus looked at her and then looked down at Felicity, who stared up at him with blue eyes that seemed to take up at least half her face. "Could you watch her for a second?" He asked Selina. "And hand me the phone?"

Selina smirked. "You're gonna cancel another one of your manly bonding trips to hang out with Felicity, aren't you?" She grinned. "Stefan's not gonna like that, you know. This'll be the third one you've skipped out on."

"Oh, I'm not skipping out on it," Klaus told her. "I'm aware that I've not been the best friend I can be as of late, so..."

"So what are you gonna do?" Selina asked.

"I'm gonna ask him if he wouldn't mind my bringing Felicity along with us," Klaus said. "Given the circumstances, he'll have to understand."

"You're seriously suggesting taking Felicity on an outing with you and Stefan?" Selina tried her hardest to keep a straight face. "I don't know about this." She handed the phone over. "But good luck anyway."

Klaus handed Selina Felicity and took the phone, and Selina followed him, grinning as she listened to him try and get Stefan to allow him to bring Felicity with him on their trip. But Stefan wasn't having any of it.

"She's a baby, Nik," Stefan pointed out. "She's just gonna get in the way."

"But she's adorable and I'm watching her," Klaus said. "I can't just leave her."

"Isn't Selina there?" Stefan asked. "Why can't she watch Felicity?"

"Because Adrian asked me too," Klaus pointed out. "That's why."

"She's made you soft," Stefan told him. "Spending so much time with a little kid has made you soft. Fine, whatever. Stay at home with her, since that's what you want. I don't care. Owing to the fact that you skipped our last two trips, I have no idea why I thought this one would be different."

Selina heard that and she snatched the phone out of Klaus' grasp. "No, no, Stefan!" She said. "He'll come, don't you worry. He'll come and I'll take care of Felicity. Everything will be all right. Okay, see you in a few minutes. Uh-huh. Goodbye."

After a lot of talk, Selina finally convinced Klaus to leave Felicity at home with her while he went out with Stefan. "I know it's gonna be hard to let her go," Selina told him. "But she'll still be here when you come back. It's not like she's gonna disappear."

Klaus was still hesitant. "I don't know," he said. "Are you sure you'll be able to-?"

"Yes!" Selina interrupted in exasperation. "Nicky, I've taken care of kids before, okay? I know what I'm doing, so stop stalling and when Stefan gets here, you're gonna go, all right?"

"Fine," Klaus rolled his eyes. "But if you so much as take an eye off her for a minute-"

"I won't! I won't!" Selina assured him. "Geez, what is your problem? You're very high strung lately."

"I'm not acting any different than you did when Adrian was a child and you wouldn't let me near him," Klaus told her.

"Well, unlike you, I had a reason to be a little nervous," Selina replied. "You weren't always the most attentive person. If I hadn't been paying attention, you might have dropped poor Adrian on his head or something." She paused. "I, on the other hand, feel perfectly capable of watching her without allowing anything bad to happen. So stop worrying and just go."

Klaus gave her a dirty look, but when Stefan arrived, looking much more cheerful once he was told that Klaus would be coming with him but Felicity wouldn't, left with him without protest.

Once he was gone, Selina took Felicity into Colin's room and the three of them played together for awhile before Laura knocked on the door. "You're playing with the babies!" She observed.

Selina nodded. "I am. What's up? Are you okay?"

"Where'd Uncle Klaus go?" Laura asked.

"He went out with Uncle Stefan," Selina said. "They decided they wanted to have some grown-up fun by themselves."

"Oh," Laura said, looking sad for a little while. Then her eyes lit up. "When will he be coming back?"

Selina shrugged. "I don't know. But you should be happy for him that he gets to have time with his friends away from home. He shouldn't have to spend his whole life looking after you every minute."

"Why not?" Laura asked. "We play a lot and he doesn't mind."

"Well, that's because he loves you," Selina told her. "But part of loving someone is making sure they're allowed to have their own interests and be themselves. Like, what do you want to do with yourself? Is there a hobby you'd like to try doing?"

Laura thought a moment. "I wanna dance!" She exclaimed.

"Okay," Selina nodded. "Let's go dance, then." She picked up Felicity in one arm and took Colin's hand with her other hand, then led them out of his room with Laura following behind.

When they reached the living room, Selina set Felicity down in the baby chair that had a permanent place next to the sofa, then, she went to the CD player and put in a CD of her favorite peppy songs. As "Jump" by the Pointer Sisters filled up the room, Laura, Colin and Selina began to dance around, and even Felicity was happily wiggling around in her chair.

As the songs changed, they kept going, and during "Walking on Sunshine," they were so involved that they didn't notice someone come in the house. Helene saw what they were doing and just paused, watching them until one of them noticed she was standing there.

"Oh," Selina flushed a little. "Hi. Sorry we kept you. How long have you been standing there?"

Helene grinned. "Not long," she said. "But don't worry. I've been very entertained watching you. You look like you're enjoying yourselves."

"So what brings you here?" Selina asked. "Did you come to see Felicity?"

"Well, I wouldn't mind having a look at the baby my husband took away from me," Helene said, getting on her knees beside the baby chair, taking Felicity out of it and cuddling her close. "How are you, honey?"

"What Adrian did was wrong, but it wasn't exactly right for you to turn him into a rabbit either," Selina said. "Just what were you planning on doing with him after that?"

Helene shrugged. "Nothing more. I just wanted to be able to keep an eye on him. He doesn't always have the best judgment."

"Your father is living here too, you know," Selina told her. "He's helping manage all of Felicity's powers. Nothing is being left out."

"My father is here?" Helene asked. "Right at this moment, he's here?"

"No," Selina shook her head. "He's out having lunch with your mom. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, sure," Helene said. She had been looking nervous before, but now her facial muscles relaxed. "Listen," she said. "I don't know why my father let Klaus keep Felicity, but don't you think he's wrong? I'm asking you this mother to mother."

"Well, I admit that it wasn't Adrian's smartest idea, but you did turn him into a bunny for no good reason, so I don't know how kindly I feel toward you right now," Selina said.

"Do you at least feel kindly enough to allow me to right a wrong and take Felicity home with me?" Helene asked. "You'd really be doing me a favor and we wouldn't have to tell anyone."

"Even if we didn't, I think Nicky would notice Felicity was missing and he loves her too much to just let her go," Selina said. "Look, he's not here right now, but if you just waited until he got back from where he is, I'm sure he'd be willing to talk it over. Or at least say 'not a chance in hell' to your face."

"Oh," Helene nodded, looking up. "I see. So you won't let me take Felicity home with me?"

Selina shook her head. "No. She's staying here until your father and Nicky get back and we can have a calm, rational discussion about this. Now put her down, and go, if that's all you came here for."

But Helene just sat there, clutching Felicity, a crazy look in her eyes. "I don't think so," she said. "If you want her, you'll have to come and get her yourself. Go on. It shouldn't be difficult for you, should it?"

Selina frowned, her lips becoming a thin line. She approached Helene, but as she reached out for Felicity, she felt an explosion of pain in her head.

"Oh, god!" she cried, clutching at her head as she rolled up in a ball on the floor. She let out a yell and Laura got down on her knees beside her mother. Both Colin and Felicity were in tears. Helene looked down at Selina and smirked. "Well, since you're clearly incapable of caring for my daughter, I think I'll take her now. Goodbye!" She left, the door slamming shut behind her.

"Mama!" Laura cried, putting her hands on Selina's shoulders. "It's okay, Mommy. You can get up now!"

"No, I can't!" Selina told her. "It hurts too much!" Tears were streaming from her eyes. "Laura, make it stop hurting!"

Laura stared down at her mother uncertainly, then said, "Just a minute!" She went to her room and grabbed her toy lion off of the shelf and came running back with it. "Here!" She said. "Take this!"

Selina shut her eyes tight against what pain that lingered and pushed herself up on one elbow, staring at the lion. "Okay," she said weakly. She reached out for the lion, took it away and held it close to her. "I feel better now," she said. "Thank you, honey."

"That lady got Lissy!" Laura pointed out.

"Yeah," Selina nodded. "I know. And I'll call your Uncle Klaus to get her back. But let's wait a bit. Mommy hurts and we don't want to wreck Uncle Klaus' good time. He's probably having lots of fun."

"So," Klaus said to Stefan as dangled his fishing pole off the side of the boat. "Did you catch anything yet?"

"No," Stefan said irritably, slapping yet another mosquito off his arm. "No, I have not caught anything, and I don't want to. Why are we even doing this? It's so boring! I could be snacking on some beautiful women right now, but instead, a bunch of stupid mosquitoes are snacking on me! I want to go home!"

"You know, Stefan, I really think it wouldn't hurt you to just slow down and relax a bit," Klaus said. "Have you ever tried that?"

Stefan sighed deeply. "No."

"Well, I think you should, really," Klaus said. "It's really helped me out.

Stefan scoffed. "Yeah. Helped you become a loser! What happened, Nik? You used to be fun!"

"Well, you and Anna start having children and then you tell me how wild you're still able to be," Klaus told him. "Family life changes you."

"Speaking of children," Stefan replied, "Maybe I should have let you bring Felicity. She'd be the only active thing here. At least looking after her would have given us something to do!"

"Well, all right," Klaus told him. "I'll make a note to bring Felicity next time. But I'm having a good time and it's your own fault if you aren't."

Suddenly, a fish bit the end of Stefan's line. "Wow!" Klaus said. "Looks like you've got one! Hold onto it tight and pull it up!"

"No, thank you," Stefan said. "Honestly, what's the point?"

"You know," Klaus put his pole down. "I think I've had enough of your attitude. You want to be done with this? Fine. Why don't you just go?" On the last word, Klaus managed to push Stefan out of the boat and into the water with a splash. "I hope you can swim," he said. "Otherwise, you're in trouble."

Stefan thrashed around in the water and then surfaced, spitting water out. "Eww!" he said. "That's disgusting! Of course I can swim! Why wouldn't I be able to?"

Klaus shrugged. "I don't know. Not everybody can."

"But it was a risk you were willing to take with me," Stefan nodded. "Well, that's nice." He paused. "Seriously. Can we go now?"

Klaus rolled his eyes. "Fine. Whatever. Let's go." He pulled Stefan back into the boat and they rowed back to the dock, before heading back to the car. Klaus turned on his phone and saw that he'd missed a call. He retrieved it and heard something very alarming.

"Klaus, it's Alistair. I know you're having fun, but you need to get home as fast as you can. Helene used magic to incapacitate Selina and then took Lissy. Selina is recovering and I've been trying to talk some sense into Helene, but so far, I've not been successful. I need all the help I can get."

Klaus finished listening to the message and turned to Stefan. "We have to go home," he said. "Now."

"So what happened here?" Klaus asked Selina. He was sitting next to her on the sofa, her head resting on his shoulder, her legs resting across his lap.

"I-I don't really remember," Selina told him. "I was dancing around with the kids, you know, we were having fun and then Helene came.

"She wanted to see Lissy," Laura piped up. "Then she made Mommy hurt and took Lissy away."

"Is that what happened?" Klaus asked Selina. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Selina nodded. "I'm okay."

"Well, good," Klaus nodded. "Because I'll need someone to help me go get Lissy. Unless you don't want to. I could always ask Alistair if you don't feel you're strong enough."

"No," Selina shook her head, sitting up a little quicker. "I can do it. It's okay. I'm fine!" She stood up. "Let's go get Lissy!" she said. "Let's not wait another minute!" She paused, looking guiltily down at Laura. "I mean, let's call Alistair and see if he's having any luck with Helene."

Klaus called Alistair, who told them that things seemed all right for the moment and that it wouldn't hurt them to wait a day. Just to give Helene a chance. It was possible that she wouldn't do such a bad job with Felicity after all.

"Of course he'd say that," Selina groaned. "He's her father. It's natural for him to take her side!"

"He's not staying at the house to try and talk some sense into her, and after what you've been through today (and only because of that) I guess we have no choice but to do what Alistair said and Let Helene keep Lissy for the night. But after we've rested, we'll get her tomorrow, I promise you," Klaus told her.

"Really?" Selina asked. "Good. Because I have a bad feeling about what will happen if Lissy stays there too long. You didn't see the look in Helene's eyes when she was here earlier today, but she looked crazy. Normal people do not look like that."

Klaus sighed. "It's no good worrying about it because it will stop you from sleeping and you're gonna need all the strength you can get to face Helene tomorrow."

Early the next morning, Klaus' cell phone rang.

"What?" He asked groggily.

"I know it's early," Alistair said. "But I just wanted to warn you that I've made no progress with Helene. In fact, she's gotten worse. Felicity was really fussy for most of the night last night, and then Helene went to check on her and I didn't hear another peep out of her after that. At first I just thought it was normal, but then went I went to check on her in the middle of the night, I saw that she was crying her eyes out, and that she probably had been all night."

"If she had been, why hadn't you heard it?" Klaus asked.

"I don't know," Alistair told him. "Helene must have put a silencing spell on her so she wouldn't have to hear the crying. I feel ill. I should have paid more attention."

"Well, is she all right?" Klaus asked. "Is there anything wrong with her?"

"No, not health-wise. She looks healthy to me," Alistair said. "But just think of what would have happened if I hadn't come in to check on her!"

"Worrying won't help anything," Klaus said. "Selina and I will be at Helene's as soon as we can and we will get Lissy out of there."

"Yes," Alistair agreed. "And then I'll call Astrid and see what can be done about Helene. She hasn't broken any actual rules per se, but she needs to be punished somehow. In a way that will make her remember never to do this again."

"Who were you talking to on the phone?" Helene asked Alistair.

"What? Oh, no one," Alistair said. "Just seeing if it worked is all."

Helene grinned. "Oh, come on, Daddy. Do you think I'm stupid? Don't lie to me."

"That spell you put on Lissy," he said. "Take it off right this minute!"

"If I do that, how are we supposed to have peace and quiet around here?" Helene asked.

Alistair shook his head. "You should be ashamed of yourself," he said. "You malign Adrian for taking Lissy away, saying that he's doing something that's only going to make life worse for her, but when you have her again, you take away her only way of communicating. She could die, Helene! Do you not want her? Is that it? Because if you don't want her, then give her back to Klaus and Selina. They love her."

"I don't want them to have her," Helene whined, stamping her foot. "She's my baby!"

"Well, then you better start caring for her as a mother should," Alistair said severely. "Will you take care of her? Be honest."

They sat in silence and then Helene looked up at her father. "No," she said. "I won't."

"Well, I guess you'll be giving her back to Klaus and Selina then," Alistair said simply. "I'll go get her. They'll be here in a bit."

It was Helene who answered Klaus' knock. She and Klaus and Selina stared at one another for a second or two, then quite suddenly, Selina punched Helene in the face. Helene fell to floor for a second, but as Selina and Klaus were walking away toward the kitchen where Alistair was with Felicity, Helene sat up and shot another brain pain spell in Selina's direction. Selina fell to the floor again, but this time, she worked through the pain and managed to get to her feet, shooting forward to pin Helene to the ground, hissing and sinking her fangs into Helene's neck. It was Helene's shriek of pain that brought Alistair and Lissy to the front door.

"Oh, my god," Alistair said, handing Felicity to Klaus and pulling Selina off his daughter. "What's happened? What's going on?"

"She bit me!" Helene said, pointing at Selina and looking hurt.

"Oh, I don't need to say the whole list of things you did to deserve that!" Selina shot back. "I'm only glad Lenora wasn't around so you could hurt her as much as you did Lissy!"

"I didn't do anything to Lissy," Helene said through her teeth. "I was just making sure I had a good night's sleep for once."

"When you have kids, it's never about you!" Selina said. "Especially if what you do for yourself comes at the kids' expense. You aren't fit to take care of Felicity or anyone else and you will be damn lucky if you see her again at all!"

Helene was muttering to herself and raised her arm to cast another spell, but Alistair put a hand on her arm. "Don't even think about it," he said. "Now, go clean yourself up and then we're going to go see your mother about how to deal with you. After you take the spell off Lissy, of course." Resentfully, she did, and then Alistair herded Helene away, leaving Selina, Felicity and Klaus alone by the front door.

"Well," Klaus cleared his throat as he snuggled Lissy against him to shush her. "I guess that's it then. We can go now. I won't get to do a thing."

"You held on to Lissy," Selina said. "That's something."

"Are you all right?" Klaus asked her. "Helene did hurt you again."

"But this time I barely notice it," Selina said. "I guess it's the adrenaline and all."

"I think I'd like to go home now," Klaus said, clutching Felicity tight.

Selina nodded. "Me too. Let's go."

They got in the car with Selina in the driver's seat and Klaus in the back with Felicity on his lap. When they got back home, Klaus tucked Lissy in bed and she fell asleep almost immediately.

Klaus stayed by her bed, looking down at her. "How could Helene mistreat such a sweet little girl?" He asked Selina. "If Alistair hadn't been standing right there, I would have snapped Helene's neck as soon as we walked in the door!"

"I know," Selina said, putting her arms around him. "I know you would."

Klaus held her to him. "You know," he said, "When Alistair called yesterday and told me you were hurt, I felt terrible. Even though Helene did it, I felt like I had allowed it because I wasn't there." He kissed the top of her head.

Selina sighed. "Don't blame yourself, Nicky. You didn't know. You and Stefan were having fun. You have the right to do that."

Klaus smirked. "Actually, only I was having fun. Stefan's not the biggest fan of fishing."

"Fishing?" Selina asked in surprise. "Really? I never would have guessed that that would be something the two of you would do together."

Klaus grinned. "Well, it was."

Selina stood in his arms for a few seconds more, then looked up at him. "So you're just gonna stay in here until Lissy wakes up?"

"Yes," Klaus said. "I am."

"Well, all right," she said. She got on her tiptoes and kissed him deeply. When they pulled apart, he looked at her in surprise. "What was that for?" He asked.

She grinned. "Just because." She strode to the door, paused and turned around. "See you in a bit, Nicky."