Here's where, as they say, the plot thickens. Things are about to get interesting in Mystic Falls and I do so hope you enjoy it as much as you've enjoyed the previous chapters. I don't want to give anything away so I'm going to shut up. I can't wait to hear your thoughts!

xoxo

Chapter 9 – Family Ties

She was about to crawl into bed when there was a tapping at the window. Her heart stuttered before she saw that it was Damon. She unlocked the window and let him in.

"What are you doing here? What if Jenna catches you?" she whispered.

"Then I'll compel her to forget I was here. Relax. I just wanted to tell you that Stefan and I are going to be outside all night so you don't need to worry about anything, ok?"

"You don't have to do that" she said but instantly felt safer.

"Yes I do. If I go home I'll be worried about you all night and end up out there anyway. At least one of us should get some sleep"

"Thank you, Damon. Tell Stefan I say thank you, too" her voice shook and she chided herself so being so scared.

"C'mere" he said and held his arms out to her.

Elena happily buried her face in his chest and breathed a sigh of relief. He stood there and held her for a few minutes before planting a kiss on top of her head.

"Go to sleep. We'll be right outside"

She let go of him reluctantly. When she stepped back she caught his eyes sweeping down her body with a little smirk.

"Is that what you're wearing to bed?"

Looking down at her pajama shorts and tank top, she frowned.

"Yeah, what's wrong with my PJ's?"

"Not a damn thing" he said and pulled her in for a long kiss.

Damon ended the kiss and sighed before disappearing out the window. She crawled into bed with a smile on her face. The alarm on her phone sounded at 7:30 am the next day and she smacked at it until it stopped. When she rolled over there was an unfamiliar, albeit welcome, weight next to her and she snuggled into it. It took a minute but when she managed to pry her eyes open, she found herself curled up on Damon's shoulder and he was looking down at her with a particularly smug smile on his face.

"Look who's finally awake"

He was propped up on her bed with his hands behind his head.

"How long have you been here?" she asked sleepily.

"Since Jenna and Jeremy left about an hour ago"

"You've been watching me sleep for an hour?"

"Actually I've been on the roof most of the night so I've been watching you sleep for nine hours"

"If you were any other guy on the planet that would be super creepy"

"So what were you dreaming about?" he asked suggestively.

"Nothing" she told him quickly and rolled over to get up.

"Nothing?" he asked.

Like most of her dreams, it had been about him but there was no way she was going to tell him that. The last thing he needed was an ego boost.

"I don't really remember" she told him as she dug for socks in her dresser.

A millisecond later he was behind her, trapping her between him and the dresser with his mouth pressed to her ear.

"You're a terrible liar, Elena" he murmured.

Her breath caught in her throat.

"I'm late for school" she told him weakly

"No you're not. You don't have a first period"

"I will be if we do what you're thinking about doing"

"What am I thinking about doing?" he asked with mock innocence, his knuckles just barely brushing over the sliver of exposed skin on her back.

There was nothing more she would like than to jump back into bed with him and let him do whatever was currently on his mind, but she had a dance committee meeting and Caroline would be livid if she missed it. Gloomily she wriggled away from him.

"Damon, I can't. I have a decade dance thing in thirty minutes that I can't miss"

"The decade dance is officially on my shit list" he said and pouted at her when she closed the bathroom door.

He was still there when she got out of the shower and now he was going through her underwear drawer.

"Damon!" she said and snatched a pair of red lacy panties out of his hand.

"How come I've never seen those before?" he asked

"I'll wear them for you tonight, ok? But right now you have to let me get dressed. Please" she begged.

"Ok, ok. I'll behave…for now"

"Maybe you would go make me a cup of coffee?" she asked in her sweetest tone and he glared at her.

"You're lucky I like you"

He plodded downstairs and she got dressed in a hurry. If he came back and she was naked, she was done for.

"Elena…" she heard Damon call from downstairs.

He sounded alarmed so she bounded down the stairs two at a time and found her Uncle John standing in the foyer with a crossbow pointed at Damon who was standing in the hallway. She bolted across the room and stood in front of Damon.

"What are you doing here? Are you insane? Put that thing down!" she yelled at her uncle.

"Elena, get away from him. You don't know…"

"That I'm a vampire? Yes, actually she does. So unless you're going to shoot her, I suggest you put the crossbow down"

John made no move to lower the weapon and she heard Damon let out an exasperated sigh.

"I promise I won't kill him, ok?" he whispered very quietly to her.

Then he was gone from behind her and the crossbow flew out of John's hand and landed in the living room. She dashed over to retrieve it and by the time she'd picked it up, Damon had her uncle pressed face first against the entryway wall with his arm twisted behind his back.

"What do you want me to do with him?"

Her mind raced as she tried to think. John's visits were thankfully few and far between but when he did show up, he always stayed too long for Elena's taste. She couldn't imagine what he was doing here now.

"I don't know" she said helplessly.

"Who is he?"

"My Uncle John"

"You never mentioned an uncle"

"Jenna and I like to pretend he doesn't exist"

"Elena, please listen to me. Vampires can control you mind so whatever he's said to you is a lie" her uncle pleaded with her.

"I'm wearing vervain" she told him snottily

"I could just knock him unconscious" Damon suggested.

She disliked the idea of hurting her uncle, even if he was a complete ass, but she really didn't see any other options.

"Ok…" she said hesitantly.

"It was nice to meet you, John" Damon snarled sarcastically before whirling him around to punch him in the face.

John dropped to the floor in a heap. Elena held the crossbow out to Damon like it was diseased.

"Will you take this please?"

"I think you should hang on to it. You've got that whole Lara Cross Tomb Raider thing going for you. It's kinda hot"

She scowled at him and he smirked at her before crossing the room to take it. With a few quick flicks of his fingers, he disarmed it and removed the wooden arrows that were loaded into it.

"What the hell is he doing with a crossbow?" Elena asked, looking down at her unconscious uncle.

"Did I forget to tell you that the men in your family hunt vampires?" he said off hand and meandered back toward the kitchen.

"Yeah I think you might have left out that little detail" she told him with her hands on her hips.

"Oh. Well, now you know"

"Damon!" she said and stormed into the kitchen after him.

"Don't 'Damon' me. How was I supposed to know that you have a crazy crossbow wielding uncle? I thought Jeremy was the only Gilbert male left and he clearly isn't carrying on the family legacy"

"How do you even know about the vampire hunting thing?"

He gave her a long look and she raised her eyebrows at him.

"What?" she asked confused.

"A few of them may have been stupid enough to come after me" he said quietly and turned on the sink to wash the coffee pot.

"And what happened to them?"

Another long look and raised eyebrows.

"Oh"

It hadn't even occurred to her that he might have killed her relatives but she supposed she shouldn't be surprised.

"It was a long time ago, Elena"

"I know" she said uncomfortably.

He put the coffee pot down and came to wrap his arms around her.

"Please don't be mad" he begged

"I'm not mad…it's just weird, that's all. I'll get over it" she told him and returned the embrace.

"Your uncle is going to wake up soon. We have to do something with him"

Damon let go of her to fix her a cup of coffee.

"I know" she said glumly

"I could just keep knocking him unconscious but it might cause brain damage eventually"

"Enough brain damage to make him forget you're a vampire?"

"Probably not. Look, you go to your dance meeting and I'll get Stefan to come over and help me with your uncle"

"Promise you won't cause any permanent injury" she said staring seriously into his eyes.

"I promise" he said and handed her the to-go mug.

"And you're still coming to the dance, right?"

"I'll be there"

"Ok, I'll see you tonight then"

She leaned up on her tip toes to give him a kiss and dashed out the door.

This whole not killing people thing was really cramping his style. Damon heaved a sigh of annoyance as he looked down at the unconscious man in Elena's entryway. He'd searched him and found a small stake strapped to his ankle and another much larger one inside his jacket pocket. This guy didn't mess around. Stefan showed up ten minutes after Elena left and walked into the house.

"Points for not killing him" his brother commented as he came to stand next to him.

"Thanks. Who invited you in?"

"Jenna, a couple weeks ago"

Damon nodded.

"So…thoughts, suggestions on this?" he said waving down at John

"Actually yes but I think we should take him back to the boarding house. Pull your car around to the garage. I'll tie him up and we'll toss him in the trunk"

"Works for me"

Once they had John at the house, they tied him to a chair in the living room and waited for him to wake up.

"I have something I need to tell you. Don't be pissed, I just found out yesterday and I haven't had a chance to talk to you until now" Stefan told him as he plopped down on the couch

"Ok…"

"I've been looking into the Elena/Katherine connection and I think I found at least one piece of the puzzle"

Damon looked at his brother in surprise. Obviously he hadn't forgotten about it but he hadn't given it much thought since Elena had crashed her car.

"Do tell"

"Elena is adopted and this man" he gestured toward John "is her biological father. Her birth certificate shows Miranda and Grayson Gilbert as her mother and father but there's no record of Miranda ever being pregnant with or giving birth to a baby girl. Eighteen years ago a teenage girl named Isobel Flemming spent a summer in Mystic Falls and had a fling with John Gilbert. Nine months later, Miranda and Grayson welcomed Elena into their family"

"You've been a busy boy, Stef"

"Oh but wait there's more. Several years ago Isobel Flemming became Isobel Saltzman. That probably doesn't mean much to you…"

"Isn't that your history teacher's last name?"

"Ok maybe it does mean something to you. Yes, it is and Isobel was his wife. Two years ago Isobel mysteriously disappeared and was pronounced dead. I've searched high and low for her but it's like she fell off the face of the planet"

The image of a petite woman with dark hair and sea green eyes passed through his mind.

"I think I know what happened to her" he said

Stefan raised his eyebrows in shock.

"You do?"

"Can I trust you Stef?"

"Of course"

"I mean it. You have to let me explain this to Elena"

"Yes, Damon you can trust me"

"I turned her"

"You're joking"

"I wish"

"Jesus, Damon…"

"I know, I know! She came to me and asked me to turn her a couple of years ago and…well what can I say? She was charming"

"You have a serious thing for the women in Elena's bloodline"

"Tell me about it"

"So back to my initial point; we have a bargaining chip with our friend here. I imagine if he's hid it from her for this long, he won't want her to find out about it now"

Damon smiled at his brother. Sometimes he forgot that Stefan could be as diabolical as he was.

"It's moments like these that I think we might actually be related"

The man in front of them started to groan and his eyes fluttered open.

"Where am I?" he mumbled

"Casa Salvatore" Damon told him.

"I'm on vervain" he said nervously

"We figured" Stefan told him.

"What are you doing with my niece?" he demanded of Damon

"Your niece? Don't you mean your daughter?" Damon sneered at him.

John's face fell and he swallowed thickly.

"How do you know about that?"

"Does it matter? What matters is that we know about it and you'd rather Elena didn't"

"What do you want?"

"A truce" Stefan told him.

"Fuck you. I don't make deals with monsters" John spat.

"Then I'll just call Elena now and have her come over so you can explain everything. How do you think you'll take it? Personally, I think she's going to be super pissed" Damon told him as he dug his phone out of his pocket.

"Wait!"

He put the phone away and looked at John expectantly.

"What kind of truce?" he asked.

"You deal with the fact that I'm dating Elena and accept that I have absolutely no intention of harming her in any way shape or form. In exchange we'll let Elena go on thinking you're just her uncle"

"I want you to stay away from my family" he hissed

"Not going to happen"

John looked furious, his face was red and his nostrils were flaring.

"Then there's no truce"

"Fine have it your way" Damon grabbed the roll of 'just in case' duct tape he'd grabbed and slapped a piece on John's mouth.

Not one to make idle threats, he plucked his phone back out of his pocket and dialed Elena. She picked up on the third ring.

"Hey, is everything ok?" she asked.

"Kind of. Can you come to the boarding house?"

"Sure…no one is bleeding, right?"

"Nope, no bloodshed…yet" he teased

"Damon…" she said darkly

"Kidding"

"I'm leaving now so I'll be over in a few minutes"

"See you soon"

He ended the call and looked over to see John frantically shaking his head and making 'mmmm' sounds through the duct tape.

"You had your chance. Now she's going to hate you even more than she already does"

Stefan double checked the knots binding John to the chair before they meandered off to get a drink and wait for Elena. She arrived twenty minutes later and Damon led her into the parlor. John was slumped forward with his eyes closed.

"Did you knock him out again?" she asked

John's head snapped up in answer to her question and she jumped in surprise.

"So, do you want to tell her or should I?" Damon asked him.

"Tell me what?"

John shook his head again with a depressed look on his face.

"Guess that means he wants me to tell you. Why don't you sit down?"

She eyed him suspiciously but took a seat on the couch.

"Can you take the duct tape off? It's really weirding me out" she said and looked pityingly at John.

"In a minute" he said gently and took the seat next to her.

Stefan walked in with a file in his hand and sat on the other side of her.

"Ok you guys are really starting to freak me out. What's going on?"

"Stefan has been looking into your connection to Katherine and he stumbled upon some…interesting information along the way. There's really no good way to say this so I'm just going to say it. Elena, you were adopted"

Her mouth fell open and moved like she wanted to speak but couldn't find the words.

"How…how do you know?" she whispered finally.

"There's no record of your mom ever being pregnant with or giving birth to you" Stefan told her

"But mistakes happen with paperwork, right? Maybe someone just misplaced the records"

Stefan shook his head 'no' and opened the folder. He gave Damon a pointed look before continuing.

"Eighteen years ago John was still living in Mystic Falls. A girl named Isobel Flemming was here staying with friends one summer when she started dating John. A few weeks after they started dating, she became a patient of your fathers and his records for her are incredibly vague. Then nine months later your parents announced they had a new baby but no one remembers Miranda ever being pregnant"

"Are you saying that he" she looked at John in disgust "is my biological father?"

Damon nodded and took her hand.

"What about my birth mother?"

"I have some information about her. If you decide you hate me…well I can't promise that I'll understand or accept it but I'll try"

"I could never hate you" she told him earnestly.

"How about you reserve judgment until I finish the story? A few years ago I was approached by a beautiful, intelligent, and extraordinarily charming woman. She wanted to be a vampire and she convinced me to turn her. Her name was Isobel"

"As in the woman you just said gave birth to me?"

He nodded somberly.

"Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure, yeah. Elena, I'm so sorry. If I'd known…" he said lamely

"She asked you to turn her into a vampire?" Elena asked with anger in her voice.

"Yes, she did"

"And he knows about all of this?" she asked, inclining her head toward John.

"I don't know. John, did you know I turned Isobel into a vampire?"

John shook his head "no".

"You didn't know who turned her, but you knew that she's a vampire didn't you?" Elena demanded.

John stared at her for a long moment before nodding his head "yes".

Her expression was unreadable and her eyes kept flicking up to the man tied to the chair at the center of the room. Suddenly she jumped up and stomped over to John.

"I am never going to forgive you for this" she hissed and slapped him soundly across the face.

A/N: If you've stuck with The Parting Gift this far, I really can't thank you enough. You've all been so kind and your support means everything to me! This one's got at least another six chapters to go, probably more…I hope that's good news for anyone reading this :)