Disclaimer: The characters in this story do not belong to me. The character "Shane" is a creation of my own, basic personality based off of myself.

Her Portrait in Black

Chapter Ten

For the rest of the day Damon was trying to figure out who I had been on the phone with and what I needed to talk to them about that I couldn't tell him. I figured if he knew I had call John Gilbert he'd be pissed, so I thought it was better that I didn't say anything about that. As for Ric, I wasn't sure how me basically inviting another vampire hunter to town would go over. Especially one that already wasn't a fan of his, since Ric was around when Damon had skipped town. He witnessed how it all had affected me and I hate to say that I was destroyed, but I really was.

My quiet demeanor didn't fail to escape Damon, he knew that something was up and he was pretty sure he wasn't going to like what was coming. We were on our way out of the house when he grabbed my elbow by the door and turned me to face him.

"You ready to tell me everything that's going on now or do I have to wait and see who's going to drop by? Did you call Luke? You know I'm pretty sure he's going to want to kill me after taking off. I know I had said he can't scare me but if he's involved with your family secret then I might be a little."

I rolled my eyes, laughing lightly. "No I didn't call Luke. I need help but I'm not crazy, it'll be bad enough if my sister comes back."

Damon let out a sigh of relief. "Good, cause I really would rather not have to have a battle to the death with Rambo. If you didn't call him, you want to tell me who you did call?"

"Another friend, just don't worry about it." I reached for the door knob and went to walked through the now opened door but was pulled back by Damon. His face now looked annoyed and impatient. "Damon, let go of me." I move to pull my arm from his grasp; he was actually starting to scare me a little bit, which he had never done before.

Damon rolled his eyes. "Christ Shane, I'm not going to hurt you or anything, I'm just getting tired of you beating around the bush. Just tell me who you called here, I need to know who it is so I don't get into a fight with them. If they're connected to you then I'm sure they'd like me dead." He released my arm, putting his hands to his sides and waited for me to say something.

"His name is Alaric Saltzman. He is, or was, Isobel's husband. He had no clue about vampires until Isobel disappeared; at least that they were real. Isobel talked about them enough but he thought it was just a hobby."

"Does he know about me?" I stayed silent, not answering him, which only annoyed him further. "Shane!" Damon snapped at me, bringing my attention to his angry expression. "Does he know about me?"

"He knows your name and that we were together." I tried to shrug it all off, hoping to get him to move on, but I didn't know why I ever thought it would work.

"And..." Damon could tell there was more I wasn't saying.

"And he knows what you are, but I had to tell him!" I quickly threw in, seeing the fury cross over his face.

"You told him! The husband of the woman I turn! You just went and told him about me? Shane what the hell were you thinking?"

"I was thinking I was saving your life! I figured if he knew who you were and who you are to me he'd be more like to not try and kill you. And I didn't come right out and say that vampire that turned your wife is my ex and we're sort of involved again. I barely said anything, just that there were two vampires here that he needed to grant immunity to and not go after. You and your brother."

"But you told him about us?"

"Well, yeah I mean he wanted a reason why you and Stefan were off limits I told him Elena was with your brother and that you were kind of with me. He freaked out, questioning my sanity and so I told him we were together before but I hadn't known about you then it clicked in his head. He remembered you, remembered when you left, remembered what I was like, how I just shut myself off for a while."

Damon sighed, running a hand through his hair. "It was that bad?"

Damon stared at me with guilt on his face. I shrugged looking down at my feet. "I got over it quick, you know me I don't like to dwell on things."

"Lair." He reached out, putting his hand lightly on my wrist pulling me to him. He put his hand to the side of my face, tilting my head back a little. "I'm sorry. I was trying to keep you safe; I wasn't the only one in town when I left. I didn't want anyone to see us together, it'd give them something to use against me."

I smiled lightly, putting my hands on top of his and pulling them away from my cheeks. "You know it's okay, right? I had my issues and I got over them, more easily now that I know why you left. And since you did tell me why, I should tell you Ric isn't the only one that I called and I wasn't even going to say anything but now that I think about it he's going to be an ass and hang this in front of my face. But I can't tell you here." I motioned to the front of the house, silently telling him we needed to go outside before I told him anymore.

Damon nodded, taking my hand and leading me outside of the house. We walked for about five minutes, far enough from the house so that Stefan wouldn't hear me. We were at the edge of the woods, with the house out of sight, before Damon nodded to me. "We're good here. I can't hear Stefan and Elena moving or talking anymore, there's no way he can hear us."

I nodded, pausing for a moment to collect my thoughts and think about how I was going to word things. He waited, patiently for once, until I was ready to speak. I took a deep breath and began. "Besides calling Ric I called Elena's father."

"You know who Elena's father is? I thought that just Isobel's one friend knew, she hadn't said anything to Elena."

"No, I knew. I was young when Isobel got pregnant but I was also very aware of how scared she was, being so young no one wanted to tell me anything ever so I learned to read people at a very young age. It was the only way I could ever know when something was wrong. Isobel actually told me what she was afraid of, the whole family knew the story about Katharine, to me it was just a bedtime story but the rest of the family knew its truth. Isobel was scared to death that Katharine would come after her baby, afraid she'd have a girl who would be the doppelganger."

"Well, she wasn't wrong." Damon threw out leaning on the trunk of a tree, letting me continue.

"Right, well she wouldn't have known that then. She couldn't bare the thought of someone coming after her baby and taking her away. When she started to show my aunt and uncle took her out of her high school and continued to home school her letting people think she was in Europe for a semester or something. She called the father to tell him she was due soon and that she wouldn't be able to protect the baby if she was Katharine's doppelganger. He said that his brother and sister-in-law were trying to have a baby but weren't having any luck. Their baby would be safe with them."

"Elena's fathers' brother and sister-in-law? The Gilberts?"

"Yeah. Elena's father is John Gilbert, Grayson was just her uncle but he and Miranda took her in knowing the danger she could be in and raised her as their own, making John the pestering uncle. With a name change and no physical connection to Isobel and anyone else in my family there was less of a chance the Katharine would find her and use her or kill her. I don't know how the whole doppelganger thing works or what Elena's roll is but being with the Gilberts was the safest beat."

Damon was silent for a moment, than he began to pace back and forth. "John Gilbert, I'm guessing he's in on the whole founder's council secret?"

"And I think he knows that you and Stefan died a long time ago. From what I remember Isobel telling me about him he was obsessed with the original founders here and any journals that were kept. So anyone who really knew about what happened and wrote it down, he read about it."

"Do you know if he and Zach were close or if they spoke?"

I shook my head. "Not for such, it's more likely that Grayson and Zach were friends or whatever. John, as far as I know, didn't stay in Mystic Falls for long only popping in every now and then for a few day. I guess he wanted to be in Elena's life in some way, see her grow up."

"So why'd you call him?"

"To warn him."

Damon stared at me for a second, at a loss for words. "What do you mean warn him? Warn him about what?"

"John is still in love with Isobel, I'm sure of it just like I'm sure he's been in contact with her since her change and I'm sure he had something to do with Isobel seeking you out. I'm giving him a week to get her out of here, if she's not gone in that amount of time I'm going to kill her myself. If I wait too long she'll come after me again and I'm sure she's going to confront Elena."

"Okay, so what? We wait for Papa John to stop by, then what?"

"I don't know, I don't know what John's going to do. I don't know if he's going to get rid of her or help her. It could go either way, but I needed to give him the chance to do the right thing. She maybe a psycho bitch but she is still my family. Maybe John can make her give a shit about something."

"So we'll wait. Wait for John, wait for this Ric guy, we need to make up some kind of plan while we wait though. In case John doesn't get Isobel out of here or her husband falls for some old trick she may have."

"Right." I nodded in agreement. "But I have no idea where to start, there's too much going on at once and my head is going to explode. I really don't think I can do this; this is all stuff that wasn't supposed to happen. I'm not supposed to have to deal with this." I stepped back leaning against a tree.

Damon stopped in front of me, taking a few steps forward putting his hand against the tree on either side of my head. "Hey, it's not like you're going to deal with it by yourself, Shane. You got me here or did you forget?"

"No, it's kind of hard to forget you Damon. You make sure everyone knows you're around."

Damon let out a soft laugh, ducking his head down a little to brush his lips against my neck. "Come on, let's go get something to eat, maybe to drink too. I think you might need it."

Damon took my right hand in his, pulling me from the tree and close to his side and wrapping an arm around my shoulder. For a moment at least I could be confident that I didn't have to worry about anything. It was only going to be a short period of time but it's be nice to not think about Isobel or John for a little while.

TBC

A/N: So, another update. Been a little while but I was stick at Chapter 9, not sure how to continue. I knew I wanted Shane to tell Damon about Ric and John but wasn't sure how. I figured the best way to do it is to just jump in and see where it goes. I hope this chapter made sense…For some reason I don't know that it does. May require a rewrite…We'll see.

I've updated I think all my other stories, so if you're reading any other ones check them out!

Thanks!

READ. REVIEW. ENJOY! =D

Jenna