He had loved her the instant he laid eyes on her face.

It was a very cold night and John was sitting at a table in the Mystic Grill, drinking a cup of coffee to try to stay awake. He was failing terribly, but in more than one way: failing to stay awake and failing his Chem class. And of course he had waited to the last possible second to bust out a quick study session for his exam coming up tomorrow. He didn't really know why he even tried. He was doomed to fail, but still he attempted to convince himself that the ever elusive "A" was possible.

And that was when he saw her.

She had just entered with a gang of her best friends. She was perhaps a year or so younger than himself, and he was stunned by her beauty. She joked and frolicked with who appeared to be her boyfriend as they began to sit around a table -- this suddenly reminded him of his own girlfriend, Jenna Sommers, who was speaking with Grayson (who was also currently going out with Jenna's older sister) as he was relaxing after a long day of work and college with a couple of beers. But that thought was quickly dashed from his mind as the girl locked eyes with him.

She must've been thinking what he was because she got up and, still holding his gaze without being completely obvious as to tip her boyfriend off, headed to the ladies room. He followed moments later, abandoning all thought of Chem exams and coffee.

Unfortunately, Jenna found them. She promptly proceeded with informing the girl's boyfriend of their partners' act of unfaithfulness, and the next thing John knew was that it was morning and he was lying somewhere behind the Grill. His face was covered with bruises and tried blood coated his chin. But it didn't matter anyway. He had discovered the girl's name: Isobel Flemming. And that was enough for him.


Jenna never told anyone else about John and Isobel, and she never truly knew who the girl was. Jenna also just assumed that John hadn't seen the girl after the beating he had received from her boyfriend. Therefore, no one realized who the girl was that showed up on Grayson's steps almost a year later, sixteen and scared to death and very, very pregnant. No one thought about the possibility that John was the father of the gorgeous baby girl, and when the teen disappeared days later, Grayson and Miranda took the child in as their own. They christened her Elena.

No one asked, so John never told. It just had to be that way.


As he was preparing to graduate from high school, John learned about the vampires from the journals of Jonathan Gilbert. He had been seeing Isobel on and off since Elena's birth, but now he sought her out to tell her about the information he had discovered. Isobel had confided in John that she had been considering studying paranormal psychology in college, so the young Gilbert knew that this would be right up her gallery.

They came up with the plan together -- first as boyfriend/girlfriend, then later as friends when Isobel began to drift away and fall in love with someone named "Alaric." John saw it in her eyes and heard it in the way she spoke about him. He was losing her, but it was okay, because the plan would bring them together just as it had when they had begun to drift apart towards the end of their high school careers.

John attended her wedding with a heavy heart, but he hid this fact behind a smile.

They continued their plotting in secret, and their secret bound them closer together. John arranged for them to plot in places where she would be more vulnerable to his charm -- apartment buildings, romantic restaurants. His jealousy pushed him further and further, and eventually Isobel caved in and let John have his way.

As time passed, John watched as Isobel became more and more enveloped in her work and in her husband - in anything and everything but him. She was no longer interested in the plan, and John saw less and less of her until he never saw her at all. He knew that the plan must be done if he was to keep her close.

He gave her a call with the instructions. John brought up their daughter -- reminding Isobel that if they didn't rid Mystic Falls of vampires, that their daughter was certain to be in harm's way -- to ensure that she would follow through.

And Isobel did what she had to.


Unfortunately what Isobel had to do consisted of stealing his ring of immortality to give to Alaric to ensure his safety. At first John was enraged, but he realized that blowing up in Isobel's face would not do anything but drive her away. So he remained calm and "borrowed" Grayson's ring (he had never much cared for his snobbish older brother, anyway), and assured her that everything was alright. And John was sure that it was just Isobel's way of saying good-bye to her old life and welcoming a new one.

But it still hurt to think about the fact that Isobel would rather see Alaric protected by the ring than himself.


After the scheduled meeting with Damon, John didn't see her again for a very long time. Isobel called him occasionally, but it was always brief and about the plan. She just needs time to adjust, John would think to himself, She's fine, we're fine, everything is okay.

But he knew it wasn't. He knew that the dynamics of their relationship had changed. That it would never be what it once was. The fragile thing they called true love, the one thing that they were once able to hold for each other, and been promptly shattered into a million pieces. Love can only mend the relationship of two people before the decline reaches a certain point.

They had officially passed this point.

This fact tried to break his heart, but he buried it down deep inside and locked it away so that he wouldn't have to experience the pain. So he attempted to live a normal, if empty and meaningless, life until the time came that he got the call from Isobel, the call that would change everything.

It had taken nearly ten years (maybe more, time had blurred together after Isobel had gone) to get that call. But now it was time to move on to step three of the plan, and hope -- no, pray -- against all hope that they could reverse what had been done and cross back over the point of no return.