A/N: WARNING: This is the second book in my Doppelganger Diaries Series. If you haven't read "Slipping Underneath" I highly recommend going back and doing so before reading any farther. That being said, if you are someone who had already read that story, please continue! I'm excited to share this next installment with you!

"Ships in the Night"

Lucawindmover

Prologue

"Slipping Underneath"

"I don't wanna fall out but we're all out of time." ~ Sam Tsui "I Don't Want an Ending

Well, my brother has done it again. Somehow Damon has managed to cause me misery and pain all over again. Years ago when he'd promised to make the rest of my undead life a living nightmare, I'd just thought he was being dramatic. I hadn't really believed him. He had always been prone to flights of fancy. He has always had a short attention span. When we became vampires and our natural tendencies were heightened and amplified, I had just assumed this was one of those traits that would continue. I had thought his promise of my misery was something I might endure for a year or two. I thought he would get bored with it and move on.

I was so wrong.

Every horrible thing that has befallen me over these decades can be traced back to him. Whether something as insignificant as financial ruin or more important, like my friends being harmed or killed, Damon was behind it. Every single time the Ripper side of myself has been unleashed it's been because my brother tempted or tricked me in one way or another. He hasn't always been obvious about it. Sometimes he would spend years assembling an intricate house of cards around me and when I was least expecting it, he would kick out one of the bottom cards and leave me with the mess. He loves to watch from the wings while my life falls apart around me.

But this thing with Elena is the last straw for me. I swear, if he does anything to Elena I will kill him. I've never been able to before because I love him. I love him and I regret forcing this life on him. All the times he ruins me feels like penance. It takes away a little more guilt each time, making it easier for me to live with myself knowing that I took away his choice.

Elena is a line he cannot cross with me. I love her. I love her more than I love him. I will do anything to protect her, from him and from myself. That's part of the reason I'm so conflicted right now.

The last few months have been surreal. When she left with Damon and went to Georgia, I didn't know what to think. Granted, he'd kidnapped her, but I still expected a little more resistance on her part. I know that we had been fighting at the time. That has to have some effect on how things played out there. I should have told her about how she looked like Katherine. I hate that she found out by looking at a picture on a table in my room. What kind of boyfriend am I to have kept that around? She was understandably upset.

Telling her she was adopted? That is near the top of my list of difficult things I've had to do in my life. She took it better than I'd expected but it still hurt to have to tell her at all. I'd have much rather let her go through her life believing that the people who raised her were her biological parents. But she needed to know that she was tied to Katherine somehow and I didn't know how else to explain it to her.

But that wasn't the biggest piece of information revealed in the last few months.

Elena is pregnant. With my child.

I have turned that thought over in my head a hundred times and I still can't get it to make sense. My reaction to Elena and Damon telling me was probably one of my lowest moments. I can't believe I accused her of cheating. I can't believe I made it seem like there was something unseemly going on between her and my brother. She seems like one of the first genuine friends he's had since we became vampires and I immediately decided something was false about it. What kind of person, what kind of brother, does that make me?

I'm going to be a father?

When I became a vampire, I'd understood that I was giving up the possibility of having children. It didn't matter to me at the time because the woman I was in love with was a vampire and couldn't have children either. I was young. I wasn't thinking of babies, I was thinking of being with Katherine for all eternity.

But after she was gone and I'd lived a few decades, I started to realize what I had lost and it haunted me. There is a part of me that would have loved to settle down with a beautiful wife and make dozens of babies. And yet, I would never be able to. I knew that. I thought I knew that. I'd come to terms with the reality of it.

And now? I don't know how I feel. Not that Elena is giving me much room to feel anything about it. She's all but closed me off. I don't blame her, given the circumstances. But I want to be a father, now that I know I can be. I want to show her that. I just don't know how to get her to come around. Not when she has her friends, and Damon, to fall back on.

Well, I know a piece of information that really could change her opinion of her new best friend. But it would tear her apart. Would it be worth it? Would breaking her heart and turning her against my brother really be worth the chance of her taking me back? At the same time though, would keeping this information from her really be a good thing for her? I mean, she's going to figure it out eventually. Wouldn't it be better to come from a friend? Is keeping the information from her actually protecting her or just delaying the inevitable?

See, I have figured out that Elena's birthmother, Isobel, was Alaric Saltzman's wife. I think Elena suspects this but she doesn't know for sure. I do know for sure. I heard it from Alaric's own mouth. And I also know that Damon killed Alaric's wife. Which means that Damon killed Elena's birthmother. I'm not sure of the circumstances involved here but I doubt that anything Damon could say to Elena would really make up for this fact. When she hears this, when she figures it out, she's going to be heartbroken. As much as she has tried not to worry about the fact that she's adopted, I know part of her was hoping to build a relationship with the woman. I mean, her parents, the people who raised her, are gone. Jenna tries to be a good guardian and mostly succeeds, but she wasn't ready to be a parent and certainly not to two grieving teenagers. Now Damon has taken away the possibility of Elena meeting her birthmother.

Do I tell her? Or do I let her find out on her own? I have no idea what to do. I've been sitting here all night wrestling with the possibilities. Nothing makes sense right now.

I don't know what to do.

"Yeah, the time goes on now, Don't ask me how. I don't know." ~Sam Tsui "I Don't Want an Ending"

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. L. J. Smith is the genius behind the original Vampire Diaries characters and those things related to their universe. Also, any direct lines from the show should be credited to Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec. I just enjoy tormenting the wonderful characters she has created for us. I claim no rights to them!