"So you and I are getting married in two weeks," Vince said. "How about that?"

Roxie nodded. "It's really something. I know I don't want something big though. Just family, a few friends, that's all."

"Yeah," Vince nodded. "I'll have to get hold of Tessa and Uncle Pete somehow."

"Wait," Roxie said. "You want to invite Tessa?"

Vince nodded. "Of course I do. She's my sister."

"We can't invite her!" Roxie exclaimed. "My brother is gonna be there! You know he and Tessa used to be involved!"

Vince nodded. "Yeah, I know. So what? Tessa's got a new boyfriend and your brother is married, so there shouldn't be a problem and I have just as much right to have the few family members that I have at our wedding as you do."

"Fine," Roxie said. "But Helene is not gonna like having Tessa there, and you know what she does when she's unhappy? She turns people into things! She's a witch, remember? When I was little and I pissed her off, she turned me into a goat!"

Vince smirked. "That's a really good image. Thanks a lot. No wonder you're scared of her."

"I'm not scared of anyone," Roxie said. "I'm just mentioning Helene's temper so that you won't be surprised if, when the wedding is over, and your sister has four legs, fur and a beard and goes 'baaaaa!'"

"Thanks for the warning," Vince said and patted her on the shoulder. "I'm gonna go talk to Enid and see what she thinks of all this."

Roxie nodded. "You do that. And I will go see about possibly getting us a band."

"You will?" Vince asked, looking surprised. "That's so helpful."

"Now, I'm not guaranteeing anything," Roxie said. "Because the lead singer is on the outs with a few other people who will be at the wedding, so I don't know if he'll want to come, but I'll try and talk him into it."

"So Sam is still mad at Damon?" Vince asked.

"Well, yeah!" Roxie said. "If you found out your dad was sleeping with your sister, wouldn't you be upset with him?"

Vince stared at her for a moment. "This is just an observation," he said finally, "but have you noticed that you come from one of the most fucked up families I have ever met?"

Roxie nodded. "Yeah, I've noticed that. So it's okay with you if Sam plays?"

Vince nodded. "Yeah. The few times he's played at Enid's, he hasn't been half bad."

"All right," Roxie said. "I'll go and see if I can't hunt him down."

After looking for an hour or so, Roxie still hadn't located Sam. She was about to give up when she got a call from Vince. "If you're still looking for Sam, he just walked in the door of Enid's. He's sitting at the bar. Get here as fast as you can so you can ask him while he's still sober."

"All right," Roxie said. "Thanks." She hung up her phone and drove to Enid's, finding Sam just where Vince said he'd be.

"I take it things aren't going well for you," she said to him. "Gotten any more gigs lately?"

Sam shook his head. "No. The last two canceled on us. It's a real shame too. One of them was a frat party."

"Well, I have something to say that might cheer you up," Roxie said carefully. "Vince and I are getting married and I wondered if you'd do me a favor by playing at our wedding."

Sam gulped down a glass of whisky and looked at her. "You're getting married?" He asked. "Good for you!" He paused, eyes narrowed. "Is Dad gonna be there?"

"I don't know," Roxie said. "But I suspect yes. 'Cause Mom said I had to invite Lucy and I have no doubt he'll be her plus one."

"Then tell her she can't have a plus one!" Sam said.

"I can't do that!" Roxie told him. "She'll know why she can't and then she'll tattle to Mom, and that will lead to all this crap I really don't want to deal with."

"If Dad's there," Sam said firmly, "I'm not gonna play."

"Oh, come on!" Roxie said. "Lucy's leaving for Europe for a year after the wedding. She and your dad will be separated then. It won't be as bad as you think. I promise not to tell him that you're gonna be there, and since you'll be there as a member of the band rather then my brother, you'll have as little contact with him as possible. I'll make sure of it."

Sam sighed. "Fine, but it'll cost you extra."

"Fine," Roxie said. "Whatever. It's on New Years' Day at my Dad's house. I'll send you the address next week."

"Are you talking about your wedding?" Enid asked. "I'm so happy that you're having the reception here."

"Well, where else would we have it?" Vince asked. "Everyone we know is here."

"You make a good point," Enid said. "How's the rest of the planning coming?"

"It's not gonna be very big," Roxie said. "Just my family and his, you know. That sort of thing."

"Adrian and Tessa in the same space?" Enid asked. "Have you told them? You should probably warn them ahead of time."

"That's what I told him," Roxie said. "But he thinks we have nothing to worry about."

Enid sucked in her breath. "I doubt that," she said. "I suggest you tell them as soon as possible, or I suspect you will be heading for trouble. Didn't Helene throw some sort of fit when she found out about Adrian and Tessa?"

Roxie nodded. "To say that she had a 'fit' would be putting it mildly. She died, Adrian made the mistake of flippantly telling her that she had to move on because he had, and that pissed Helene off so much that she possessed Tessa's body and made a whole big mess of things. I don't think any of us want a repeat of that. Or at least I don't."

"And I think you're underestimating them all," Vince said. "I think they have moved beyond that by now and the three of them will be able to deal with each others' presence in a calm and mature fashion."

"Did you see this?" Helene asked Adrian, holding up the envelope that had Roxie and Vince's wedding invitation in it. "Apparently, your sister is getting married."

Adrian burst out laughing. "Good one. Now tell me the one about why the chicken crossed the road."

"To get to the other side," Lenora said. "I don't like that joke. It's not funny."

"I'm not joking!" Helene said. She threw the envelope on his plate and then reached for an apple. "Just read that, would you?"

Adrian looked at her for a brief moment, a smirk on his face, and then turned his attention to the envelope. He pulled the invitation out and read it. "Oh, my god," he said, looking flabbergasted. "Roxie's getting married."

"That's what Mommy told you!" Lenora said. "Are you having trouble listening?!"

Adrian shook his head. "No, sweetie. It's just that, if you knew your Aunt Roxie as well as your mother and I do, you'd find it hard to believe that there's someone out there with the guts to marry her too."

Helene was about to respond, but just then, a loud bark echoed through the kitchen, followed by an irritated meow and hiss.

"Sounds like Rusty is chasing Snowball again," Helene told Lenora. "Why don't you go check on them to see if they're okay."

Lenora got off her chair and nodded. "All right," she said. "I'm so glad Rusty is a dog again. He scared me when he was a person."

"He scared a lot of people when he was a person," Adrian said dryly. "After you check on him and Snowball, I want you to come back here and finish your breakfast, and then you and I are gonna clean your room."

"I don't need help," Lenora said. "I can clean my room by myself."

"If you think so," Adrian said. "But I'm going to come and check on it after you tell me you're finished to make sure you actually did it."

"Okay," Lenora said. "I'll go check on Rusty and Snowball now."

She left and Adrian turned back to Helene, who wore a sour expression. "What's wrong with you?" He asked.

"The guy she's marrying, this Vincent Allen Talbot, why does his name seem familiar to me?"

Adrian's eyes widened for a second and then he relaxed. "I don't know," he said. "Maybe you owe him money."

"Adrian, I'm being serious!" She punched him in the arm. "Where do I know his name from?"

Adrian sighed. "I used to date his sister. You remember Tessa, don't you?"

Helene's eyes narrowed. Suddenly, the sky outside darkened, thunder crashed, and the house was plunged into darkness.

"So you do still remember her," Adrian said, his voice sheepish. "I kind of hoped that you'd have forgotten by now."

"What happened to the power?" Lenora called.

"It's all right," Adrian said. "Your mother is just a little upset. We'll get the lights back on in a minute."

They sat in the darkness for a few more minutes and then, slowly, Helene brought the lights back on. "So we're gonna go?"

"Of course we're going to go!" Adrian said. "Roxie is my sister and I have to go. Think about this: Tessa might not be there. She might be busy. Then you will have missed out on all the fun for nothing."

"You think I'm being unreasonable, don't you?" Helene asked.

"It depends," Adrian said. "What will you do to me if I say 'yes'?"

"I am not being unreasonable!" Helene said. "For god's sake, Adrian. You slept with her! I'm not just gonna forget that!"

"And you killed her!" Adrian shot back. "I'm not just gonna forget that either!"

"Well, then maybe we shouldn't go to the wedding," Helene said.

"I wanna go!" Adrian said.

"Why?" Helene yelled. "So you and Tessa can make out in the coat closet? You know she's gonna be there!"

"I can't believe that you'd think I'd do something like that!" Adrian said. "That's just-" He stopped as Lenora came back into the kitchen. "I checked on Snowball and Rusty, Daddy," she said. "Why are you two fighting?"

"We're not fighting," Adrian said. "What would make you think that?"

"Well, you were yelling really loud," Lenora said.

"Oh, don't lie to her, Adrian!" Helene said. "Yes, Lenora. we were fighting. But we're done now." She left the kitchen and Adrian watched her go. "I bet we won't be done for long," he muttered under his breath. He then looked at Lenora. "Let's go clean your room," he said. "And I don't want to hear any arguments."

Lenora nodded. "No, Daddy. I'll be good. I promise."

"Would you be interested in being my date to Roxie's wedding?" Lucy asked Damon.

He nodded. "I don't see why you have to ask. You know what my answer will be."

"Well, Mom mentioned that you sometimes have issues with formal occasions," she said. "I don't want you to do anything that would make you uncomfortable."

Damon sighed. "Look, it's not long til you leave for Europe, is it?"

Lucy shook her head. "No. Less than a month."

Suddenly, Damon's eyes lit up. "I have an idea: what if, instead of going to Roxie's wedding, we have one of our own? We can get married before you leave!"

Lucy looked at him sadly. "You know we can't do that," she said. "The whole reason why I'm going to Europe now in the first place is because I feel like I need to do see the world and grow up before I do something big like get married."

"Why can't we see the world together?" Damon asked.

Lucy smiled a little and put a hand on his face. "No one said we can't," she told him. "But you've had years and years to get to experience all this stuff and I haven't. This is a big opportunity, and if I turn it down now, it will probably never happen again and lead me to have a big regret. You have regrets, right? Like about Mom? How if you hadn't listened to your father and gone off to war, then you and Mom could have gotten married and lived happily ever after?"

Damon sighed. "That was a regret of mine. For a very long time. But it's not anymore. Because now I know that if I would have married your mom back then, I never would have gotten to meet you."

Lucy felt herself start to tear up, then she sobered. "Oh, come on!" she said. "Why are we talking like this? I still have time before I leave and we'll make the most of it. And we'll start by going to Roxie and Vince's wedding together. I actually think it might be fun. Knowing the two of them, or Roxie at least, it will probably be extremely unconventional." She looked Damon over. "You probably won't even have to wear a suit."

"So Roxie is getting married?" Anna asked Selina. "How is Nick taking it?"

"Better than I thought he would," Selina told her. "He's even letting them have the wedding at his house."

"The guy she's marrying, what's he like?" Anna asked. "Scary?"

"Remember the guy she was with at your wedding?" Selina asked.

"You mean the guy who stood in the corner looking grumpy while Roxie tried to hit on all the waiters?" Anna said. "Yeah, I remember him. He was kinda cute."

"He is the sweetest guy you will ever meet," Selina nodded. "He seems to have some sort of ability in him to make Roxie, you know, nice. I'm glad she has him in her life."

"You and Elijah are gonna go?" Anna asked.

"Elijah says that if he doesn't see Roxie get married with his own eyes, he'll never believe that it happened, so yes. We're gonna go together," Selina said.

"Who's gonna watch Gregory? Do you know yet?"

"I would say your mother, but she actually decided to help with reception preparation so she's gonna be at Enid's with Ronan all day."

Anna nodded. "That's probably why she did it. I don't know what she sees in that guy. He's not so special."

"I don't know," Selina said. "I like him. He's nice."

"My father has his moments too," Anna said. "He's not so bad. He was really upset when that Mary Anne girl staked me."

"I wish I could agree with you, but your father has been wanting to kill me for more than a century now," Selina reminded her. "So you'll have to pardon me if I don't have the rosiest view of him. I never respected your mother more than when she ran him through and locked him in that box, or whatever she did." She shuddered. "I will be more than happy if he stays right where he is." She gave Anna a glance. "No offense."

Anna shrugged. "None taken, I suppose. Even if he is your father-in-law now and I have a feeling that if he knew about Gregory, he'd at least try to get along with you."

Selina shook her head. "I will believe that when I see it, which will hopefully be never. And as far as Gregory is concerned, would you mind watching him?"

Anna nodded. "Sure. But only if you promise to bring me a piece of cake."

The night before the wedding, Selina and Elijah dropped off Gregory and headed to Klaus'.

"Well, this is a surprise," Klaus said. "But a nice one."

"I don't know exactly why we're here so early," Selina said to him apologetically. "I guess Elijah just wanted to get a good seat or something."

"Well, even if you didn't have a reason to come, I'd still let you in," Klaus said. "And as luck would have it, I still have lots of room, even though you're not my only guests."

"Really?" Selina asked interestedly. "Who else is here?"

"Mary Anne," Klaus said. "It was the strangest thing. She just showed up at the front door and asked if she could come to the wedding."

"And you said yes?" Selina asked. "Why would you do that?"

"Because this is a family event and she is family," Klaus said.

"No, she's not!" Selina shook her head vigorously. "She's the daughter of an SOB who strung me along and then dumped me. You took pity on her, and turned her. That does not make her family. And have you forgotten that she daggered your sister? Or did that slip your mind?" Where is she? I'm gonna straighten out this misunderstanding right now!"

Klaus and Elijah locked eyes and then Elijah stood up and ran after her. "Selina!" He called. "Don't do anything rash. Please!"

"I'm not doing anything rash," Selina said. "Doing something rash would imply that.I'm being too hasty or doing something without any prior consideration. I've been considering all the stuff I've wanted to do to Mary Anne for years, so I'm not being rash!" She paused on the stairs and blew a raspberry at him. He paused to wipe the spit off his face and picked her up off the stairway and carried her back to the living room. "Sit here and behave yourself," he said.

"Fine," Selina said. "But I still say she's up to no good and I'm gonna stand by that."

Just then, Mary Anne came downstairs, clutching a book. "What's all the noise down here? I'm trying to read."

"Sorry," Klaus told her. "We'll try and be quieter."

Mary Anne was about to go back upstairs when Selina caught her eye. "Why are you here?" She asked.

"I'm the mother of the bride in the wedding you're crashing," Selina said tartly. "And I will be watching you."

"I'll be on my best behavior," Mary Anne said. "I wouldn't want to ruin your daughter's special day."

"Well, just see that you don't," Selina said. "You sneaky, conniving little-"

"Selina," Elijah said warningly.

Selina's mouth closed and Mary Anne giggled. "You are so whipped," she said. Selina's eyes widened and she rose from her seat, snatched the book from Mary Anne's hand and hit her once, soundly over the head with it. Mary Anne fell to the ground, unconscious.

"And just what did you feel the need to do that for?" Elijah asked.

"Do neither of you remember that this is the person who daggered Anna?" Selina asked. "Shouldn't you be feeling some sense of vengeance toward her like you did for Lucy with Damon instead of obeying her every whim and acting like she's some innocent? She's not!"

Klaus looked back and forth between Mary Anne's prone body and Selina. "I haven't forgotten," he said. "It's just that you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. If she tries to cause trouble at the wedding, I will deal with it. In fact, I'm more than certain she will. That's one of the reasons why I suggested it take place here."

Selina took a deep breath. "And here I thought you were just being a good sport."

"I know you seem to think that I'm oblivious when it comes to Mary Anne, but I've been paying close attention to her ever since she daggered Anna," Klaus said. "But I couldn't let her know that, could I? So I'll put her to bed now and do everything I can to make her think I'm on her side, and then tomorrow, we'll see what happens."

"There she is!" Helene said when she and Adrian and Lenora came through Klaus' front door. "I should have known she'd be the first person we'd see!"

"Who, Mommy?" Lenora asked, letting go of her mother's hand to tug on the itchy lace collar of her dress.

"Nobody, Lenora," Adrian said. "Just a woman your mother and I used to know."

"Your father knew her very well," Helene added.

"So she was like your best friend, Daddy?"

"No," Adrian said quickly, as Helene's expression became dark. "No, Lenora, she was nothing to me."

"Adrian!" Tessa said, coming toward them and giving Adrian a hug. "How nice to see you!" She ignored Helene and patted Lenora on the head. "Is this your little girl? She's so precious!" Just then, there was a ripping noise. "What was that?" Tessa asked. "Did you hear something?"

Lenora walked around Tessa and giggled. "Your dress is torn," she said. "Everyone can see your underpants!" Tessa's hand went back behind her and her eyes widened when she felt nothing but air where there was supposed to be skirt. She flushed. "Andrew!" She called to her date. "We have to go. It seems I've had a bit of a...wardrobe malfunction."

Her date came and stood behind her and together they walked sideways out of the room. "That was some exit, wasn't it?" Helene asked, looking at her nails.

"She had a boyfriend!" Adrian said. "What you did was just spiteful! Even Lenora is too mature to do something that asinine!"

"You think I did that?" Helene said.

"You would have killed her if you could get away with it!" Adrian said. "But humiliating her was probably easier."

"I did it," Lenora said quietly. "Cause she was making you and Mommy fight and I thought that if she went away, you would be happy again."

Adrian and Helene looked at one another and sighed. "You're not in trouble," Adrian said, putting his arms around his daughter. "And we're sorry we upset you. We'll stop fighting now."

Helene nodded, shut her eyes and then zapped Tessa back, dress in one piece and all. "So," she said to her one-time rival, trying to keep calm. "I love your dress. Where did you get it?"

"Why didn't we just elope?" Roxie asked as she looked in the mirror. "It would have been a lot easier."

"Oh, I know," Vince said. "But then we would have missed out on all this fun."

Roxie rolled her eyes. "This is just cruel! Mom said she hated being paraded out in front of people like a trained monkey, so why do I have to do it?"

"Because if you don't, no one will believe that it happened!" Vince said. "At least we get to have the reception at Enid's. That's a victory for you, isn't it?"

Roxie nodded and looked at herself. She looked good. She wasn't wearing a dress. Instead she wore a white halter top and white leather pants with fringe on them, and a small veil attached to a headband on her head. "It's something."

Vince nodded. "Are you gonna be all right?"

Roxie grasped his hand. "Maybe. It's not too soon for us to leave, you know."

"We're gonna be fine," Vince said. "When it's time for you to come down the aisle, take a deep breath and just look right at me."

Roxie nodded. "All right. I'll try to remember that."

"Good." Vince stood up and straightened his leather jacket. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go and try to forget what you look like so I can be dumbstruck with amazement when you come down the aisle. Not that I wouldn't be anyway, but-"

"Go," Roxie said, grinning. "If you don't leave now, you know you never will." Vince hugged her one more time and left the room. Just then, there was another knock at the door. Roxie got up to open it and groaned when she saw who was on the other side. "Oh, it's you, Mary Anne. What do you want?"

Mary Anne held out a glass of juice. "Your father wanted me to bring this to you," she said. "In case you were nervous."

Roxie snatched it away from her. "You can leave now," she said. "You've done your job." But Mary Anne didn't move. "Aren't you gonna drink it?" She asked. "I made it myself." She climbed on a foot stool so she and Roxie were eye to eye. "I'm not leaving until you've drunk every last drop," she said. Roxie rolled her eyes and began drinking the juice. Suddenly, her throat began to burn. She coughed and gagged and sputtered. She tried to throw the glass away, but Mary Anne jumped her and held onto the glass so that she had to keep drinking until it was empty, then she threw some more on Roxie's face, wrestling her to the floor, sticking her through with a piece of the wrought iron stair railing and then dragging to the room next door, shutting the door behind her.

"How are you feeling?" Tony asked Vince as they stood in front of everyone. "Nervous Roxie's gonna run out on you?"

Vince smirked. "No, she won't. You should have seen her in her dressing room. She was so nervous, it was adorable." Just then, the music started up and everyone turned expectantly toward the open doors waiting for Roxie to come out, but nobody did. The music started again. Nobody came. The room broke out into chatter. "I thought this would happen!" "Looks like you owe me twenty bucks, Todd." "What a shame, I really thought Roxie would be able to commit to someone this time." "Lucky for Vince there are millions of other girls where she came from."

"This isn't going well at all!" Caroline said to Klaus, who was frowning deeply. "What was Roxie thinking, making us go to all this trouble and then skipping out at the last minute!"

"I don't think she skipped out," Klaus said. "I think she's in trouble. Mary Anne came in late. She probably did something. I'll go see." As he left the room, he felt a sharp pain on his head and then everything faded to blackness.

"Daddy?" Roxie said quietly as Klaus opened his eyes. "Where are we?"

He sat up, his head throbbing. "I don't know. I don't even know what happened."

"Mary Anne did it," Roxie said. "She gave me juice spiked with all kinds of stuff and then she stuck me through with some railing and she must have knocked me out after that. I don't remember."

"I knew something like this would happen," he said. "I even figured it would happen today."

"And yet, you did nothing about it. What a shame." The voice was sugary sweet and very close. Mary Anne appeared, a knife in her hand, her bright pink dress making her look deceptively innocent.

"Why the hell would you do this now?" Roxie said angrily. "Now everyone's probably up there muttering to themselves about what a flake I am!"

"Well, it's not like they would be lying," Mary Anne said to her. "You are. You're a terrible daughter. Leaving your father because of a man. You should be ashamed."

"Well, I'm not," Roxie said. "Now let us out!"

Mary Anne growled and ran Roxie through. She screamed in pain as blood spurted everywhere and Klaus screamed too. "You!" he said. "I ought to kill you myself!"

"Why would you kill the daughter who loved you?" She asked. "The closest thing you've ever had to family in your life?" Almost negligently, she ran Roxie through with the knife again. Angrily, Klaus rose up and rushed her, his hands around her neck. As she choked, he said, "you're not my family. You're the daughter of an SOB who strung Selina along and I took pity on you and turned you. I shouldn't have. I should have just let you die. But it's never too late to right a wrong. But before I kill you, I want you to have a look at Roxanne there. She's my real family. She's the only one who's ever cared about me, not you. And I never should have let myself forget that." He allowed Mary Anne to look at Roxie for a second or two and then he wrung her neck and she fell on the cold hard floor of the cavernous room they were in with a thump. Then Klaus went over to Roxie and pulled her to her feet, hugging her hard. "I'm sorry," he said. "You don't know how sorry."

"Never mind," Roxie said. "You can make it up to me by walking me down the aisle. We have to hurry before everyone leaves." As they left the room, they ran into Selina, who held her friend Olivia by the collar. "Damn!" Selina said when she saw them. "I was just looking for Mary Anne. I was gonna negotiate an exchange with her: Olivia for the two of you."

"Why would Mary Anne want Olivia?" Roxie asked.

"Simple," Selina said, giving her former friend a good rough shake. "She was the one who committed the murders Mikael and Mary Anne have blamed on me all these years. Well, the last two. They were the ones that caught Mikael's attention. She made friends with me, studied my MO and then committed copycat killings in a much less competent manner than I would have done."

"Oh, please," Olivia said. "I did things much better than you and you know it!"

"Shut up!" Selina barked.

"Ring her neck," Roxie suggested. "It's what Dad did with Mary Anne."

"Oh, no," Selina said. "She put both me and I assume you in danger. She befriended you too, right?"

Roxie nodded. "That's why she's here."

"I want her punishment to be something that will last." She threw Olivia into a room, handed her the knife that Mary Anne had used to stab Roxie and then looked at Klaus. "Would you tell her that she can't leave this room and to keep stabbing herself with that?"

Olivia's eyes widened. But Klaus sat her down in chair and did as Selina asked. They shut the door on her shrieks of pain and Roxie went to get Vince. When he saw her, he hugged her tight. "I thought you were having second thoughts about marrying me."

Roxie shook her head. "No. Dad and me were being held hostage by a girl he turned into a vampire years and years ago who wanted to kill both Mom and me, but now she's dead, so let's get the show on the road."

The ceremony went off without any further hitches and nothing else happened until it was time for the reception.

"You know, I've been thinking about something for the last hour or so that you may or may not like," Elijah said as he and Selina drove to Enid's. "Just hear me out."

Selina nodded. "All right. What is it?"

"Well, knowing that Roxanne got taken down by Mary Anne, it makes me worry a little about Gregory," he said.

"Why?" Selina asked.

"Well," Elijah told her, "You may find this hard to believe, but I've acquired several enemies over the years and some of them would not be above kidnapping Gregory to get revenge on me. We need to keep him safe and I thought of the perfect way."

"What?" Selina asked.

"I want to undagger my father," Elijah said. "He'll keep Gregory safe."

"But he hates me!" Selina said. "He's gonna kill me first!"

"No, he won't!" Elijah said. "I promise I will not let that happen." He made a turn and Selina said, "This isn't where we're supposed to be going. Enid's is the other way!"

"I know," Elijah said. "We're going to my mother's house. That's where my father's body is being kept. When I said I was going to free him, I wasn't kidding. You can stay in the car if it would make you feel better."

"Nothing about this will make me feel better!" Selina said. When they got to Elissavetta's, Selina opted to stay in the car while Elijah went inside and searched for the coffin that held his father. It got moved from Niklaus' when he had expressed to Elissavetta a desire to get rid of Mikael for good, which was not what had been intended when they had daggered Mikael the first time.

He finally found the coffin in the basement. Taking a deep breath, he opened the coffin and gazed at his father's frozen face and chained body for a moment before taking off the chains and pulling out the dagger. After a moment, his father's eyes opened. "Hello," Elijah said. He helped his father sit up. "Where is she?" Mikael asked croakily. "Where is Lonely Heart?"

Meanwhile, there were other problems at the reception. Try as she might, Roxie couldn't keep Sam and Damon apart forever.

"Can we talk?" Damon asked when he caught Sam trying to sneak from the bar.

"Why?" Sam asked. "Want to tell me how great Lucy is?"

"No," Damon said. "I just wanted to say that you're doing a great job. I've been enjoying your music."

Sam scoffed. "Probably because you and Lucy can dance together to it."

"Why can't you just take a compliment?" Damon asked. "Why can't you just say thank you?"

"All right," Sam said. "You want to hear a thank you? Thank you for ruining my life! It's like I can't say it enough times. What do I have to do to get the point across to you, Dad? Do I have to go to Europe with the band and try and get a record deal there or something?"

"Lucy's leaving for Europe in two days," Damon said. "You don't have to leave too."

"Yeah, I do," Sam nodded. "You don't have a clue. We've already booked a flight for tonight. I only did this as a favor to Roxie." Sam shook his head at his father and left before Damon could say another word.

Two days later, things still hadn't improved for him and it was with a heavy heart that Damon drove Lucy to the airport.

"This isn't goodbye you know," she said. "I'm going to come back."

"I know," Damon said. "But all that waiting is going to seem like forever. What if you forget about me?"

"I won't," Lucy said. "Did you think Mom was gonna forget about you when you left for the war?"

"I hoped she wouldn't," Damon said. He paused. "Is part of the reason why you're going to Europe so that I'll forget about you?" Damon asked. "Is it a not-so-subtle hint?"

In the rearview mirror he he saw Lucy's eyes begin to tear up. "Oh, no, don't!" he said. "I'm sorry. That was a stupid thing to say!"

"You're damn right it was!" Lucy said, sniffling. "I've tried my hardest to keep it together so things wouldn't be worse for you and then you have to go say something like that!"

Damon had the urge to park on the side of the road and put his arms around her, but when he tried, she barked at him to keep moving. "I don't wanna miss my plane!" she said. When they reached the airport, Damon held onto Lucy as she sobbed into his shirt. "I'm gonna miss you so much!" she said.

He put his chin on her hair. "I'm gonna miss you too, Cookie Monster. But don't think about that. Think about the Eiffel Tower all lit up at night, and the Louvre, and eating chocolate croissants until you can't move." She looked up at him, tears in her eyes, and she said, "You're only saying that to make me go. Thank you."

He kissed her forehead. "I'm saying it because it's true. Inside of us, we both know you belong in Paris. It's good for your work, the thing that makes you really happy. If that plane leaves the ground and you're not on it, you'll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life."

Lucy nodded. "And you'll be here when I get back? I promise I won't leave you."

Damon nodded. " I know you won't. But you've got a job to do, too. Where I'm going, you can't follow. What I've got to do, you can't be any part of. Lucy. I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that."

She grinned. "Now you're just quoting Casablanca."

Damon looked out the window at the plane. "I thought it was appropriate." He chucked her under the chin. "Here's looking at you, kid."

She hugged him and kissed him one last time, then picked up her bags and headed for the gate that would lead her to her plane, and to and to Paris.

""Au revoir!" Damon called. She turned. "A bientot," she called back, then walked through the gate and onto the plane.

The end of arc 2 of my Selina stories! Next: Bohemian Rhapsody!