"I have to say I'm not happy with you," Klaus said to Alistair.

"Why?" Alistair asked. "What did I do?"

"You sent Amy back to her idiot fiancé," Klaus pouted. "Why couldn't you have told her about all my good qualities instead?"

"Because I think it's ridiculous to try and force that poor woman to like you when you just tried to kill her," Alistair replied. "If you want her to like you, you'll have to show her on your own that you're a good person. And that will take time."

"Not if I use my powers on her," Klaus replied.

"That won't work," Alistair informed him. "She's a witch. You can't."

"Damn!" Klaus swore.

"Exactly!" Alistair smiled. "Be good, take your time…pursue another woman."

"No!" Klaus cried. "I don't want her to be with that man!" He paused and chuckled. "Why am I worried? "I could woo her away easily. And it wouldn't even take much out of me anyway."

"There's nothing I can say or do that will dissuade you from this path of action, is there?" Alistair wanted to know.

"Exactly," Klaus smiled. "So don't even try." He left then and Alistair sighed, going to the kitchen where Astrid was doing the dishes.

"Would you like some help with those?" He asked.

"Oh, that's very sweet," Astrid told him. "But you don't have to help me."

"I know I don't, but I want to," Alistair said. "I insist. Please."

"All right," Astrid nodded, handing him a plate.

He took it, chuckling to himself about how the roles were reversed now, and how weird it was to see Astrid have time to do things like wash dishes.

"And don't you worry," she assured him as they later polished the silverware. "I'm sure we'll have time to take a tumble in bed before dinner, especially since the master seems to have gone out and his brother's never around much anyway." She paused and flushed a little. "Not that I want you to think I'm putting my duties aside just to engage in carnal activities. I'm much more committed than it might sound."

"Oh, I know that," Alistair said, taking her in his arms and kissing her. "You don't need to work so hard. In fact, I would be so pleased if you would just let me take care of you."

Astrid heard this and raised an eyebrow. "That 's one of the perks of being your mistress?" She asked.

Alistair chuckled. "I suppose," he said. "I'm not really good at this mistress business. You're the first one I've ever had."

"Really?" Astrid asked, a grin on her lips. "I never would have guessed. You seem more like the marriage type than the mistress type. Would it be easier for you if you just married me?"

"I-I suppose we could," Alistair replied, both surprised and comforted by her bluntness. "There's no rush to do it, though. Just whenever we can get away." He chuckled. "If Klaus has his way, he'll get hold of this woman he has an interest in and it will be a double wedding."

"And are you looking forward to that?" Astrid wanted to know.

"No," Alistair said immediately. "She's a nice girl and all…but I don't think it's best for her to be with him right now." He paused. "Same goes for the proposal. We don't have to marry right now. Hell, we don't have to marry at all. It was just an idea."

"Are you saying you don't want to marry me?" Astrid asked. "When I'm the one who brings it up, it means I want it."

"Oh, I know that," Alistair said quickly. "But…"

"Never mind," Astrid told him, striding from the room. Alistair tried to follow her, but suddenly she turned and zapped him away.

"Damn," he swore as he sat up from the floor and rubbed the bump on his head. How would he fix this?

But he didn't have much time to dwell on it as he later got a visit from the police saying that Klaus had gotten in some sort of fight and had given his name as someone who would come and bail him out.

When they reached the police station, he was led to the block of jail cells where both Klaus and Jonathan were being held. They both sported black eyes and fat lips and Jonathan also had a drying trail of blood on his throat.

"I knew this was going to happen," Alistair told Klaus. "Didn't I tell you just to leave poor Amy alone and go find another woman?"

"You did," Klaus agreed. "But I took it as a challenge."

"Well, this will be a lesson to you, then," he said, putting a spell on the bars so Klaus couldn't break them and then when the officer returned to ask if he would help his friend, said, "No, but I will be helping this man," he gestured at Jonathan. "Let him out, if you would."

"All right, the officer nodded as Klaus growled angrily and gripped the bars. They settled Jonathan's bail and he was set free.

As they drove him back to his house, he said to Alistair, "I have to thank you for what you did. You always hear about the kindness of strangers, but it's not often one experiences it." He paused. "Well, I guess you're more of an acquaintance than a stranger, aren't you?"

"It's really no trouble," Alistair told him. "You were put in that situation because of my charge. I should have kept a better eye on him. This is the least I can do, really."

"But what about your friend?" Jonathan asked.

"Oh, I'll pick him up tomorrow," Alistair replied. "A night in jail would do him some good."

When they parked in the street by his house, Amy came running out to greet them. "Oh, I was so worried when I heard about what happened to you!" She said, hugging Jonathan and kissing his cheeks. "Are you all right?"

"I will be," Jonathan assured her. "I promise. Nothing a little rest won't cure."

"Well, I hope so," Amy said. Then she kissed Alistair on the cheek. "Thank you for getting him out," she said. "I was just about to come do it myself."

"I'm happy to do it," he said. "It was no trouble at all. I hope you two have a nice evening."

"Oh, we will," Amy nodded. "Thank you."

Alistair then headed out, planning to spend some time reading since he was no longer on Astrid's good side. But when he got home, something stopped him from doing that. Not a bad something. An interesting something.

"Hello," Elijah told him as he stood up from the kitchen table." Have you seen my brother?"

"He got in a fight," Alistair replied. "And thus will be spending an evening in jail. When I found out he'd been arrested, I put a spell on the bars of his cell so he couldn't break out."

"Did you," Elijah smiled and came to shake his hand. "Wonderful. It's nice to find another soul who isn't afraid of my brother. I'm Elijah."

"Alistair," Alistair replied. "And yes, there's very little your brother can do that will scare me." He looked up. "Would you like to meet me in the library for a drink?"

"If you have scotch, yes I would," Elijah nodded. "Lead the way."

Helene was playing with Sarah just before dinner when she heard a knock on the door of Malachai's house. "I'll get it," she said, picking Sarah up and heading to the door. She opened it and saw a very sad-looking boy on the other side. "Hi," she said. "Who are you? Wait, are you one of Mother's interns? How did you find this place?"

"I don't know," he shrugged. "I just…I wanted to look for you and here you were. Can I come in?"

"What do you want?" She asked after letting him in and inviting him to sit on the sofa. "What's your name?"

"Sorry," The boy replied. "I'm Percy, and I'm somewhat responsible for, you know, you getting fired and your mother being sent back in time."

Helene raised an eyebrow. "Come in," she said. Percy came inside and sat down on the sofa just as Malachai entered the room. "Who is it?" He asked.

Percy looked at Malachai with awe. "I-I came to talk to…wow."

"He's one of Mother's interns at the Council," Helene replied. "He's why she got sent back in time."

"Steve cast the spell," Percy replied. "I just neglected to stop him."

"Ah," Malachai nodded. "So you've come to right your wrong?"

"Yes," Percy nodded. "Or at least confess so you can work on fixing it."

"Well, there's not much I can do now that I don't work at the Council anymore," Helene told him. "But thanks for telling me what happened." She paused. "Now, there are lots of ways to do a time travel spell. Many of them are improper, some of them are proper. Which way did Steve use?"

"We took some old pictures that Miss Amy had and we used them as the basis for sending her and everyone back," Percy replied.

"So there was nothing about manipulating it so you could only watch it like a movie?" Helene asked. "My parents are in a situation where they could change time easily if they weren't too careful?"

"Yeah," Percy nodded with a shrug. "I guess."

"Oh, damn," Helene replied and put a hand to her mouth before reaching out for Malachai. "What if something goes wrong in the past? What if I'm never born?"

"Well, you're still here, so I don't think we need to worry yet," Malachai said.

"Are we just gonna sit and wait until we do need to worry?" Helene asked, shaking him. "What good will that do? Do you know how to do time travel spells, Malachai? Send me back! Send me back!"

"No," Malachai told her firmly. "The way to solve this is not to send more people back."

"Well, then what should we do?" Helene asked. "I know my father is good with time travel stuff and since he protects himself from the memory issues associated with time travel, we should be safe, but do we really want to take that risk?"

"Yes," Malachai told her firmly. "We do. Trust your father to come through."

"I've always done that," Helene said. "I suppose now won't be any different. But it's just so maddening to have to wait."

"I know," Malachai told her. "I know."

"Again," Percy said, reaching out to touch her arm. "I'm so sorry about what we did, and that I didn't stop it."

"Oh, don't beat yourself up too much," Helene told him. "I've seen Steve. I don't think you could have stopped him even if you had tried."

"Yep," Percy nodded. "That's a very good point." He then got up to go look at Sarah. "Who's the baby?" He asked.

"That's Sarah," Malachai explained. "She's my daughter."

"Ah," Percy said and reached down into the playpen, letting Sarah grip his finger with her hand. "I like her. She's nice."

"Not to be rude," Helene told him. "But do your parents know you're here? I wouldn't want them to worry."

Percy shrugged. "Even if my mother did know, I doubt she would care. She works a lot and doesn't really have time for me."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Helene told him, because she really was. "Do you…would you liked to stay for dinner? How long has it been since you had a good meal?"

"I don't know," Percy said, picking up Sarah and coming to sit back down. "I usually buy myself a hamburger or something, but that's about it."

"Then you have to stay and get some good food in you," Helene insisted. "What would you like to eat?"

"Pizza!" Percy said immediately. "I know that's not exactly healthy, but it's been awhile since I had any and I'd like some."

"That's fine," Helene replied with a smile. "I love pizza."

By the time he'd returned from washing his hands, Helene had set up the whole table.

"I thought we could do a 'make your own pizza' thing," she said as she carried around Sarah and fed her out of a bottle full of formula with some blood mixed in. "Is that all right with you? I wasn't sure what sort of pizza you liked."

"I'll take anything," Percy said. "This should be fun."

As he made up his pizza, Sarah finished her formula and Helene sat her down in her high chair, putting fruits and cereal down on the little tray for her to try. She was very fascinated by and enthusiastic about the new foods, and soon they were all gone so that she had to have more.

"I see you liked all that," she said, kissing the little girl. "That's good!"

Sarah smiled and babbled and then went back to eating, only pausing when Malachai came in the room to say, "Da-da!" Which shocked everyone.

"Oh, I hope Matthew doesn't hear her say that," Helene told Malachai.

"At least hear her say that to me, you mean," Malachai said as he made up his own pizza. "But I'm not worried. She's so affectionate, she'll probably start calling everyone that as part of her normal development, which I hope Christine will make Matthew understand so he doesn't take it as a threat or a challenge."

"I hope you're right," Helene nodded. "Cause the last thing we need now is more time in court." She then dropped the subject and they went to sit next to Percy at the table, and Malachai was quick to notice the enthusiasm with which the boy ate.

"Seems like you have a healthy appetite," he remarked.

"Yeah," Percy nodded after swallowing. "I don't usually have access to this much food at one time." He paused. "I know this might sound like bad manners, but would you mind if I came to eat with you every night? Or at least more often? My mother wouldn't care, I promise. In fact, she'd probably be glad that I wouldn't be underfoot."

"That sounds good to me," Malachai replied. Then he looked at Helene. "What do you think?"

"Doesn't bother me," Helene said. "Your house, your rules."

"All right," Malachai said and reached out to touch the boy's shoulder. He was suddenly feeling very paternal toward him. "As long as you're eating here, would you like a room too?"

"Oh, I wouldn't want to impose like that," Percy said quickly. "You've already done enough for me."

"Don't be silly," Malachai told him. "I have the room. I insist you take one if you want. Or even just the couch."

"All right," Percy said after thinking it over for a while. "I might just do that. Thanks."