"I can't believe you're having to go through all this," Klaus told Malachai sympathetically as he, Malachai, and Stefan hung out at Roxie's and he kept buying his friend drinks. "What's so hard about letting you see Sarah?"
"I don't know!" Malachai said, his voice full of exasperation. "I'm not a bad person. I don't know why Sarah's father sees me as a rival. Maybe it's nothing I did. Maybe he's just nuts!"
Stefan watched them and then tapped on the bar to get Roxie's attention. "More alcohol, please," he requested. "I don't know if I can listen to this drivel anymore, or why I even bothered coming."
"Cause you knew you'd get alcohol whether Daddy paid attention to you or not," Roxie smiled and set the bottle of bourbon that she'd poured his previous glasses from down in front of him as they both watched Klaus and Malachai. "Here, have as much as you want," she offered. "It seems like this is gonna take a while."
"Thanks," Stefan grinned. "You know, at this point, I really like you more than your sister."
"Oh?" Roxie raised an eyebrow. "Things not going so well between you and Felicity?"
"Well, I wouldn't quite go that far," Stefan told her. "It's more of a problem with my brother more than with your sister. Our mother has apparently gone traveling as a way to spend her afterlife, and now she's haunting a strange guy's apartment."
"And why is that a problem?" Roxie wanted to know. "It's not like he's gonna kill her or anything."
"That's what everyone says!" Stefan told her. "I mean, I'm not as worked up about it as Damon is, cause he was the one who was closer to our mother, but it is so annoying to listen to him whine all the time. But Lucy has convinced Felicity that that's what needs to happen since this is apparently a family problem that they have nothing to do with. I swear, I have no idea what I see attractive about Lissy since all she does is make me miserable."
"You mean she makes you miserable when she's insisting you do stuff you don't like," Roxie corrected. "Like now."
"Exactly!" Stefan nodded. "We were happy by ourselves at the boardinghouse. Why'd she have to insist I come here?"
Roxie shrugged. "Don't look at me. I can't tell you what goes on in my niece's head. Just be lucky she doesn't have her powers anymore. If she did, you'd really hate her, probably."
"Yeah," Stefan nodded and poured himself a few more glasses, drinking until he could barely stand before telling Klaus, "I'm going upstairs. You talking to your other friend bores me so…goodbye."
He tried to walk away, but fell down after a couple of steps, just giving up and falling asleep right there on the bar floor.
Roxie watched him and clicked her teeth a couple of times. "I think you hurt his feelings," She told her father before calling for her husband.
"What's going on?" Vince asked.
"Well, we got someone passed out," Roxie told him. "You think you can get him upstairs?"
"Sure," Vince nodded, flexing his muscles and kissing Roxie briefly before throwing the unconscious Stefan over his shoulder and bringing him up to the second floor of the bar where the beds were. "Not a problem at all."
"Thanks!" Roxie called after him. "I appreciate it. Now," she went over to her father and Malachai. "Daddy, what is so important that you're ignoring one of your oldest friends?"
"Malachai here is in the middle of a court battle," Klaus explained. "Your crazy maternal grandfather tried to shoot him because he was upset that his daughter and Malachai were bonding."
"Yeah, I heard about that from Mom," Roxie nodded. "She came in here and told me what happened after she got back from Grandpa kidnapping her. So he likes Sarah again?"
"Yes," Malachai nodded, "And he's guarding her pretty closely cause he feels threatened that I was able to father Sarah and he can't father anyone. And the only reason why I want to bond with her in the first place is because she's got magic, her parents don't, and they have yet to come up with a sensible solution to deal with that. Letting me into Sarah's life to help would be the best thing, but they're being stubborn. And that's why we're going to court."
"You got a good lawyer?" Roxie asked.
"No, but Astrid's nice daughter offered to help me find one," Malachai replied. "I'm not worried at all." He then said, "Now that we've talked about that, we can move onto something else. Something more pleasant. Like that friend of yours: how did you meet him?"
"It's a fun story," Klaus replied. "He was a wild partier, I was a wild partier…for a few years, we were brothers in arms, killing when we could and not giving a damn about the consequences. He's a wicked man when he's not moping. What you saw today is not typical behavior from him."
"Yeah," Roxie nodded. "His brother is causing him stress, and apparently, Felicity is not helping ease that. You wanna take pity on him and bring him home for a bit? Have Amy give him the stuff she gives you when you're hungover? I think that would be nice."
"All right," Klaus nodded. "I suppose I deserve that for ignoring him.
"Do you need help carrying him?" Malachai wanted to know.
Klaus consented, and the next time she saw the two men, they were carrying Stefan out of the bar and taking him home to rest.
"You seem chipper today," Astrid remarked to James.
"Of course I do," James replied. "I've got back-up."
"Why do you need back-up?" Astrid wanted to know. "If Steve's really that bothersome to you, I'll move him somewhere else."
"Oh, you don't have to do that," James' wife Lenora assured her grandmother. "It makes for good bonding time for us as a family."
"'Family'?" Astrid repeated.
A few seconds later, she heard bickering and then two brown-haired, blue-eyed people appeared. James and Lenora's son and daughter, Henry and Susanna.
"Okay," James sighed. "What's all the fighting about?"
"She wanted to torture some of the people but I told her it was too early and we should wait until you say it's all right," Henry explained.
"And then I said that I wasn't sure why we were waiting, since they're bad people," Susanna told her father. "Who's right?"
"Technically, the torture part isn't my area anymore and you'll have to talk to Luke about that," James told his daughter. "I just bring 'em in. But given how bloodthirsty he is, I'm sure if you asked him if you could help, he would let you."
"All right," Susanna nodded and strode off. "I will."
"Do you really think it's a good idea to encourage that sort of behavior in her, Dad?" Henry asked his father, his voice full of concern."
"Oh, I think by now you and I both know that behavior like that in your sister is just how she is," James replied. "She's blood-thirsty and dark and there's nothing we can do to stop it. The best thing we can do is put it to good use and hope that's enough to keep it restrained so that it doesn't get out of control."
"And what better way to let her do it than this?" Lenora asked.
Meanwhile, Amy and Helene were looking at old photo albums in Amy's office.
"You miss the old times?" Helene wanted to know. "Do you wish someone would do a spell on you so that you could go back?"
"I don't think it would do any good," Amy told her. "Hasn't your father told you anything about them? There are a few kinds of time travel spells and the ones that are the safest don't really allow you to truly relieve the moments so the time-space continuum isn't screwed up."
"What about ones that aren't the safest?" Helene asked. "I mean, I've heard Daddy talk about them for sure. He's insane about being cautious when it comes to time travel. He puts some sort of spell on himself every day so on off chance he gets sent back in time, nothing bad will happen to him."
"Well, the worst case scenario is getting sent back by someone who has no idea what they're doing. Then you wind up with no memory and have to wait until you remember that you're supposed to be in the future (if you ever do), and meanwhile, you have a high likelihood of screwing up what's already happened. That's not a good thing!" Amy told her.
"Which is why you're so nervous about Steve and the other boys messing with the time travel spell."
"Yep," Amy nodded. "Especially because I found that one of the pictures from my album is missing. One with me in it. I think that's the one the boys might be using as part of their spell, meaning I would be one of the people who went back when it was cast. I don't want that."
"It'll be okay," Helene assured her. Whatever happens, we'll deal with it and get you back. I promise."
When the Council business had ended for the day, Steve, John, and Percy hid where they wouldn't be found and ordered to go home. When they were absolutely positive that the building was empty, they headed to Astrid's office, turning on her desk lamp, and, after setting down the picture that they'd taken from Amy (along with a few other photos so they could send back everyone they wanted) and, after opening the spellbook, Steve began muttering the spell, growling in annoyance when Percy stopped him.
"Are you really sure we should do this?" He asked. "Cause once you do, there's no going back."
"Of course we should do this!" Steve told him impatiently. "If you don't want any part in it, fine. You can go home and when we're found out, you won't be blamed. But really, all we're trying to do is educate ourselves."
"No, you're trying to cause trouble!" Percy told him. "And you're right: I don't want any part of it!" He zapped himself away and then Steve turned back to the spellbook. "Good, now that he's gone, we can actually get something done." Then he paused and looked at John. "Unless you think I'm wrong and would like to go too."
"No," John shook his head. "I'm all right. I'll stay."
"Good," Steve replied, and together, he and John cast the time travel spell. When it was over, they just stared at one another.
"Do you think it worked?" John asked. Since the effects of the spell were happening to other people, there was no way for them to know immediately if they'd had success."
"I'll choose to be optimistic and say that it did," Steve smiled. Then, they heard the security guard come in for his evening rounds, so they disappeared before they were caught, ready to come into work the next morning.
The same could not be said about the people in the photos, however. The next morning, Amy, Klaus, Astrid, and Alistair woke up in a carriage moving down a bumpy road. A few minutes of conversation helped Alistair ascertain that none of his companions had any idea who they were. He then leaned his head out the carriage window and asked the driver, "Excuse me, what year is it?"
"1896," the man responded. "Why do you ask? Are you ill?"
"No," Alistair said as he leaned back inside and tried to settle into his seat. He instinctively grabbed for Astrid's hand, but instead of thanking him for comforting her, she slapped him.
"Great," he said to himself as he rubbed his reddening cheek, wishing now that he hadn't put that spell on himself so that he'd keep his memory in cases such as this when the usual (but not definite) result with improperly cast time travel spells was that people lost their memories so he'd be as clueless as everyone else in the carriage. "This is just wonderful."