Although it was nice (in a sense) to be in familiar surroundings, Alistair was still very confused about why Klaus had let him stay after what had just happened between them.

"It isn't because you…like me, is it?" He asked Klaus. "I mean, all those women, were you interested in them as bedmates or merely art subjects?"

"Well, it just depends on my mood, really," Klaus told him. "But in your case…you're a warlock, aren't you?"

"Yes," Alistair nodded. "After what just happened between us, I think it would be an obvious thing."

"I think I could use a warlock," Klaus told him. "I have lots of enemies and it would be nice to have a little help. Are you interested?"

"Well…sure!" Alistair replied, glad that it had ended up like this for him. It would be much easier to bring him back to himself if it seemed like Klaus was remembering him already. "But if I'm going to help you, I just have one request."

"Oh?" Klaus asked. "And what's that?"

"Don't bite me anymore," Alistair replied.

"Oh, all right," Klaus sighed. "You didn't particularly look like you were enjoying yourself anyway."

"Well, who enjoys being hurt?" Alistair asked. Then he thought about Selina and said, "Never mind. Do I get a room of my own?"

"Interesting," Klaus said, smirking a little. "You didn't seem like the sort of person who would accept an invitation like the one I just gave you without asking for some sort of credentials."

"It's hard to explain why I don't need any, but I don't," Alistair told him. "Now, do you want me to stay, or not?"

"Yes," Klaus said quickly. "I do. What's your name again?"

"Alistair," Alistair replied, feeling silly for forgetting to tell Klaus his name. "And don't worry, I already know yours."

"One of those magical people with precognition?" Klaus asked knowingly. "is that what you are?"

"Yes," Alistair nodded. "I suppose you could say that. And you can put me anywhere. I'm not picky."

So the manservant set Alistair up with a room and then he tried to think about what to do next, how to next get Klaus to remember him or anything about the real world at all. And as difficult as that would be, he was glad to at least be in a place where he would have Klaus' undivided attention while he did it.

But as he soon discovered, it wouldn't be as easy as all that. He'd forgotten that in the nineteenth century, Klaus had had with him a companion who was even more troublesome than Stefan had been in the twenties: his brother, Kol.

"Hello, Nik," Kol said as he swaggered into the dining room. He was covered in blood and smirking, two things not out of the ordinary for him. "Anything interesting happen while I was out?"

"Well, we got a new housemate," Klaus told him and introduced Alistair. "He's a warlock. I thought we could use him."

"Oh, seriously, brother?" Kol asked. "I've brought you several of the witches I spend time around so you could bring them on as help and you reject them all. What's so different about this one?"

"The difference is that you won't distract him by trying to flirt with him!" Klaus said. "It doesn't do me a lot of good to hire someone to work for me if you're always distracting them."

"Oh, all right," Kol nodded. "I suppose you have a point. Thanks to what happened between me and Mathilde, I've always had a fascination with witches. I just hope that I never run into anyone from her family again. Think about what a nightmare that would be. I don't think I could handle it."

This, of course, made Alistair chuckle, as both Kol's own wife Margot, and Klaus' wife Amy in the present, were descended from the witch that had cursed Kol to always be connected to magicalkind.

"What so funny?" Kol asked.

"Nothing," Alistair replied quickly. "I was just thinking about an amusing joke I heard on my carriage ride earlier today. I certainly wasn't laughing about the misfortune that you endured after you made the mistake of making a fool of a woman you professed to care about."

"How does he know that?" Kol asked Klaus. "It seems like he knows more than he's telling."

"You know that all magical people have some ability to know the future, even if they don't use it," Klaus told him. "That's all it is. Don't lose your head."

"Oh, don't worry, brother," Kol assured him. "It would take more than just some laughter from the help to do that." He stalked off and then Klaus looked at Alistair.

"You'll have to excuse my brother," he said. "Talking about his defeat at the hands of Mathilde always touches a nerve with him." He smirked. "I can't imagine why."

"Oh, it's all right," Alistair said. "I've spent a lot of time with men like him. It takes more than one disrespectful remark to bother me." He paused. "So…what do we do now?"

"Well, actually I have theatre tickets," Klaus told him. "For some reason, I got an extra one. It's almost like I knew you were coming. Would you like to join me?"

"That depends," Alistair said. "Is it normal theatre, or one of those awful Grand Guignol type things?"

"Well there you go being psychic again," Klaus said in amazement. "It's the latter."

"Oh, for love of god," Alistair sighed. "I can't go to those. They make me squeamish."

"Why?" Klaus asked. "It's not real blood, you realize that, right? It's all just pretend."

"I know that," Alistair assured him. "But still…"

"Just come with me," Klaus told him. "I've seen the show before. I'll tell you when to close your eyes."

"Fine," Alistair replied since Klaus' tone told him he wouldn't be allowed to stay at the house. "But it won't work. Even if I can't see anything, I'll still be able to hear the spurting and gurgling."

"Well, I'm sorry but I can't help you with everything," Klaus said.

"Oh, I know," Alistair nodded as they went outside, called for a hansom cab and rode to a small, derelict building made of dark brick. Klaus led Alistair to a secret door in the back of the building and then they went inside.

The place was indeed a theater, but it was dark and cramped, lit only by two oil lamps on either side of the proscenium stage, and Alistair couldn't help but shudder at the gargoyles holding candles that were placed around the room.

Klaus handed their tickets to the usher and then they made their way to their seats.

"You wouldn't have any alcohol on hand, would you?" Alistair asked. "I know you might think me terribly cowardly, but I believe it's the only way I'll be able to get through this."

"Yes," Klaus nodded and handed him a flask. "And when you've finished what's in there, I have a pouch with a few more bottles in it to fill the thing up again."

"All right," Alistair nodded before putting the flask up to his lips. "Thank you so much."

By the time the curtain went up for the first in a series of six plays in the performance, Alistair was already good and drunk, resting his head on Klaus' shoulder, and laughing and applauding at blood spurting and violence that would have rendered him unconscious if he'd been sober.

Klaus, of course, enjoyed himself immensely without the aid of alcohol. He'd seen this series of six plays several times and his favorite was the one where a man turned into a werewolf and brutally murdered his lover before taking revenge on the rest of the townsfolk without any sort of consequence whatsoever, along with the one where the two old mental asylum patients blinded a younger inmate with scissors because she was much prettier than they were.

Alistair was quite pleased when it was all over and he could get away from the noise and the gallons of red blood that covered the stage and actors. The last in the series of plays, where a nanny poisoned children in her care, brought especially loud cries of displeasure from the audience, which echoed loudly in his ears and made him have the worst headache.

"Why do people even go to those plays if all they're going to do is yell angrily?" He asked Klaus on the ride home, feeling genuinely curious.

"That's the point!" Klaus told him. "It's supposed to evoke a passionate response from the audience. That's what it's there for. You can't blame people for wanting a place where they can yell and scream and make a big to-do over things. That's not exactly accepted normally."

"That's true," Alistair admitted and then let out a cry as a bump in the unpaved road made him hit his head on the roof of the carriage. "How long until we get back to your house? I need to go lie down."

"I though you would after all you drank," Klaus chuckled. "It shouldn't be long. Don't worry."

It was good that Alistair went to bed the second he and Klaus arrived home because not long after, Kol arrived with a certain blonde witch in tow, whom Alistair would fight to the death to defend if he'd known she was in trouble. Kol had Astrid by the hair, and though she was, of course, fighting against him, he'd already bitten her once and looked to do it again just to ease his irritation.

"I found her wandering around the park," Kol explained. "Didn't have a place to live, poor thing. Doesn't even know who she is, either." He then let out a groan as Astrid kicked him and froze him with her magic.

"I may not know who I am or have a home, but I know how to fight," she said. She then looked over at Klaus. "Are you going to cause me trouble as well?"

"No," Klaus shook his head, a smirk on his lips. "I wouldn't dream of it. I know this might seem like a foolish question to ask someone who has no idea who they are, but…how do you think you could be as a nurse?"

"I suppose I wouldn't do too badly," she said. "Do you need someone to care for you?"

"Not me," Klaus shook his head. "But I've a friend who's imbibed too much. Would you like me to take you to him?"

"All right," Astrid nodded, quickly unfreezing Kol, who gave her a murderous glare and stalked away. "Let me see him." She followed Klaus up to Alistair's room and stood over him. "Oh, you poor man," she said, pushing his hair out of his eyes. "What have you done to yourself?"

The touch to his forehead made Alistair open his eyes part way. He saw who was standing over him, smiled, and mumbled, "Astrid?"

She smiled. "That's as good a name as any, I suppose," she said, helping him sit up. "I'll answer to that if that's what you want. Now go back to sleep, all right? I'll stay here with you."

"Good," Alistair replied and nodded off again as Astrid took a seat by his bed and watched over him while Klaus and Kol set out to get some hunting in before nightfall.

"So let me get this straight," Roxie said to Adrian. "Dad is gone."

"Yep," Adrian nodded. "Dad is gone. Got sent back in time by some weasels who work at the Council."

"And we don't know how we're gonna get him back," Felicity added. "Him or Amy, or Alistair, or Astrid!"

"I could have worked on getting him back," Felicity sighed. "If I had my magic."

Stefan leaned across Adrian to grab Felicity's hand. "You know what else we could do if you had your magic?"

"Things that would show why it was good she got it taken away in the first place?" Adrian guessed.

"Hey, it's not like you never did anything bad Mr. 'Take over an entire town and kill a bunch of witches'!" Felicity frowned at him. "Do you really wanna play this game with me?"

"No," Adrian said quickly and asked his smirking sister for a drink. "No, I really don't."

"Don't look now, but here comes your girlfriend," Roxie said as Renee sauntered into the bar. "I wonder if she actually has a real home somewhere?"

"Well, if she doesn't, I can get her one," Adrian replied. "It's not like I don't have room."

"Isn't Helene still living at the house?" Roxie asked.

"Well, yes, but I'm sure she'll move out soon," Adrian said. He then strode off to meet Renee with his drink in hand and Felicity leaned against Stefan and told Roxie, "You know, it's a wonder that I, Liam, or Lenora exist at all. Do you think he and Mom ever really loved each other?"

"There was a time way before you were born that he did, I think," Roxie nodded. "Like when she died on their prom night, he was just torn apart. Or when he put her in the hospital after taking too much blood from her the first time they had sex. But once they married…once they married, something changed. Adrian realized that he'd not be your mother's whole world anymore and that just…that just took things to a place they couldn't come back from. This divorce really is the best thing for them, I think."

"Yeah," Felicity nodded, not remembering many good times between her parents. "Me too."