A/N This is the first part of 'A Few Good Men'.

Elena burst into the attic bedroom, not bothering to knock. Malia nearly jumped out of her skin and hurried to try and hide the blood bag. Elena quickly shut the door behind her.

"Sorry. Just me."

"A little more warning would be nice." Malia sucked the bag dry, wrapped it in scrap paper and tossed it into her trashcan.

"Why did you… drink… at the Boarding House?" Elena asked, still not sure 'drink' was the right word for Malia's bloodlust.

"Because Damon has college girls over partying with him and I didn't feel like dealing with him. What's the matter?"

"Jenna dug up some more information about our birth mother." Malia got up and followed Elena downstairs. The three girls gathered around Jenna's laptop.

"Your dad kept everything from his medical practice. Records, logs, old appointment books… I found an entry from the night you were born. Patient and birth date. Isobel Peterson." Jenna explained.

"Do you think that's her real name?" Elena asked.

"Pregnant teenage runaway? Probably not… First name, maybe. But where'd she get Peterson? Classmate? Best friend? So I binged it. I searched for all the Petersons in this area born the same year as Isobel, found three… two men and a woman, Trudie, who lived in Grove Hill, Virginia."

"That's not far from here." Malia pointed out.

"Well, watch this." Jenna typed something else into the search engine and pulled up and image of Isobel and Trudie Peterson from high school.

"Isobel… She was a cheerleader." Elena mused.

"I look nothing like her." Malia added. Elena turned her head, as if looking at the picture sideways would suddenly make her resemblance to Malia apparent. Malia had always been told she got her looks from Aunt Jenna and Uncle John. Now she had to wonder if she got her looks from her birth father.

"Trudie still lives there. This is her address." Jenna handed Elena a post-it note with an address scribbled on it. Malia tried to take it but Elena side-stepped away and out of her reach.

"What about Isobel?"

"I couldn't find anything about her." Elena frowned and sat down at the table. Malia turned to get another look at the picture of Isobel. Although the resemblance was definitely there, she didn't look a whole lot like Elena either. She wondered if that was a doppelganger thing…

"Listen…" Jenna began nervously. The twins looked at her, waiting for her to go on.

"There's something else. Mr. Saltzman… Ric. His wife was from around here and her name was also Isobel."

"Hold up a sec, 'was'? As in…" Malia trailed off, the information clicking in her head. Jenna nodded.

"She died."

Malia was the master of smirks, but Elena hadn't been on the receiving end of her infamous 'you rebel, you' smirks in a long time. She tried to focus on something else and held up the Post-It note with Trudie's address up to the windshield. She glanced at the house that matched the address.

"You said Stefan was going to come with you when you went."

"I didn't know we were going to come here until we showed up."

"Ah, that clears it up." Malia said sarcastically, propping her combat-boot-clad feet up on the dashboard. Elena sighed and folded up the post-it note, sticking it back into her jacket pocket.

"I just kind of drove here."

"I noticed. Are we going now or what?" Malia moved to open her door but Elena grabbed her arm.

"We didn't call or anything and just showing up uninvited…"

"Almost as a rude as dumping two babies in someone else's house for them to adopt."

"That wasn't Trudie." Elena protested.

"But she knows something. Let's go." Malia opened her door and got out. Elena huffed and followed. Malia knocked the door and Elena stood nervously on the porch, almost hoping that Trudie wasn't home. For a second, no one answered the door.

"No one's home, let's go, Malia." Elena started to walk away when the door opened. She turned back.

"Are you Trudie Peterson?" Malia asked.

"Yes."

"I'm Malia Gilbert. This is Elena-." Malia grabbed her sister's arm and pulled her to the doorway for emphasis. "-and we wanted to talk to you about Isobel Flemming."

"Well, I haven't heard that name in years. How do you know her?" Malia was opening her mouth to answer but Elena wisely beat her to it.

"I think that, um, well... do you know if she had twin daughters that she gave up for adoption?"

"My god. You're her daughters... I was just gonna make some tea. Would you like some?"

"Sure."

"Uh, the kitchen's this way." Trudie backed away from the door, anticipating Elena's entrance. Elena stepped over the threshold easily. Malia stood on the porch. That wasn't an invitation, she thought both suspiciously and bitterly. Elena kept going into the kitchen, not aware of the situation behind her Trudie closed her eyes and sighed.

"You know about vampires." Trudie didn't answer; she didn't need to. Malia nodded to herself.

"I guess I'll wait in the car." Trudie shut the door and Malia huffed, turning to go back and wait.

Elena got in the driver's seat of the car and looked over at her sister.

"Why did you wait in the car? She showed me pictures of Isobel and-."

"She didn't invite me in."

"Oh my gosh… The kitchen is this way… I didn't even think about that. I'm sorry. I think it's better anyway. She served Vervain tea."

"We need to leave." Malia told her seriously.

"I don't think she's a threat-."

"That guy has been watching this car for fifteen minutes. Let's go." Elena glanced at where Malia was looking and quickly stuck the keys into the ignition. As they were driving down the street, Malia glanced in the review mirror. The man barged into Trudie's house, leaving the door slightly ajar.

"Elena, stop!" She yelled. Surprised and panicked, Elena slammed on the brakes. Malia yanked her seatbelt off, pushed open the car door and darted up to Trudie's front porch. Elena was running after her.

"Malia, Malia, what's going on?" She yelled, catching up to her on the porch. Malia held up her hand, motioning for Elena to stop. She slowly pushed the door open and stepped inside.

"But you weren't-." Elena started.

"Doesn't matter." Malia looked away from Trudie's body, lying on the bottom of the stairs. Elena stepped inside and gasped.

"What… what happened? We just left."

"That guy that was watching us. The second we left he went into her house." Malia paused, listening.

"He's still here. Call 911." Malia darted up the stairs and looked down the hallway. She made her way into the back bedroom. The window was open, the curtains swinging in the wind. She ran over and looked out. Nothing. She slammed her hand against the windowsill, cracking the wood. She could track him… She was halfway out the window when Elena yelled for her. She darted back downstairs.

"Why would someone kill Trudie?"

"For giving you information."

"What?"

"He was watching us. As soon as we left, he went in." Elena took a second to process this information.

"The police are on their way. What… what do we tell them?"

"That we came to see her, a friend of our mother, and we left. We noticed someone go into the house and went to see if she was okay. We found her like this." Malia told her calmly. Elena wiped at her eyes.

"How are you so calm?!"

"Please, I've killed people before. I can handle stuff like this." Elena looked up at her.

"Logan Fell."

"He wasn't really dead."

"I wish he had been…"

The police let Malia and Elena go after the routine questions were answered and they went back to their car. Elena drove them back towards home. She still hated how calm Malia was. Was that a vampire thing or just a Malia thing? Malia was always blunt, bold and nearly impossible to catch off guard.

"We shouldn't have come." Elena finally spoke as they stopped at a stop sign. She cast a glance around and then pressed down on the gas pedal to keep the car moving.

"It was your idea." Malia reminded her, tugging on a strand of dark blonde hair like everything was right in the world.

"Thanks." Elena snapped sarcastically, shooting her a look.

"Look, that's not our biggest worry, Elena. Obviously someone doesn't want us knowing about Isobel."

"And that makes you want to know all the more, right?"

"You know me so well." Malia popped her feet up on the dashboard again and Elena sighed, trying to calm herself down.

"We should've brought Stefan."

"What could he have done that I didn't?" Malia demanded, narrowing her eyes at her twin.

"I don't know, I just…"

"Want a hug from your boyfriend?" There was a teasing tone in Malia's voice, but Elena nodded anyway.

"Yeah…" She admitted. She tapped her fingers against the wheel, squirmed in her seat and finally looked over at her sister again.

"I need something else to think about. I need a change of subject."

"Then change the subject." Malia told her dryly.

"Why don't you have a boyfriend?"

"To anything but that."

"Oh come on, Malia. Just talk to me." Elena pleaded. For a minute, Malia didn't say anything. Then she rolled her eyes and obediently began talking:

"No one in town is good enough for me. Besides, I'm a vampire. I shouldn't date humans. Too dangerous..."

"That's Stefan philosophy."

"Obviously not anymore…"

"I guess not." Elena giggled nervously. For the rest of the ride home, they talked about subjects that no longer held any importance in their busy, supernatural lives. Finally, Elena pulled up at the Salvatore Boarding house. Elena wasted no time going up to Stefan's room and Malia hurried to follow her.

"Stefan?"

"Better. Me." Damon walked out of the bathroom, without a shirt on. Malia rolled her eyes.

"You look, um…" Elena trailed off, as if searching for the right word.

"Dashing? Gorgeous? Irresistible?" Damon walked across the room, quickly closing the space between him and Elena. When he got too close, Malia got in between them and pushed him back.

"Wrecked. You looked wrecked."

"No reason why... Do you know that I am one of Mystic Falls' most eligible bachelors?" He slipped on a button-up shirt.

"Did everyone else die?" Malia asked, raising an eyebrow.

"How are you doing?" Elena asked.

"Never better… Yep… What can I do for you? I'm a barrel of favors today. It's my newfound purpose… how can I help people?"

"You know, somehow I doubt that." Malia told him, folding her arms across her t-shirt clad chest.

"Where's Stefan?" Elena added. Damon was struggling to button up his shirt but was evidently too drunk to do so. He turned to look at Elena.

"Help a guy out, will you? Can't get this..."

"Guess you can't leave the house." Malia told him. Elena sighed and walked over to Damon. She grabbed the front of his shirt and begun buttoning it up for him.

"So I found out who my birth mother is." She told him as she worked.

"Eh. Who cares? She left you. She sucks." He told her. Stefan walked into the room.

"Stefan." Malia greeted him. Elena went over to hug him. Damon started to put his jacket on.

"Uh... I need a bigger jacket. Wow. You know, an occasional sorority girl might, um, you know, help fill you out a little bit." He threw the jacket onto Stefan's bed and left the room.

"He's fine?" Elena asked.

"He's Damon."

"Maybe this heartache will be good for him. It'll remind him that he has one, even if it doesn't beat."

"Won't hold my breath."

"On a more important note, we went to see Trudie Peterson." Malia spoke up, going to sit on the edge of Stefan's bed. He looked between the two of them, concerned.

"I know, I'm sorry. I didn't plan it." Elena told him.

"She has Vervain, she didn't invite me in and she's dead." Malia added.

"What?" He stared her.

"I didn't kill her. Someone else did." She told him, seeing his look.

"It can't be a coincidence that she knows about vampires."

"It isn't. This is Alaric's wife." Stefan took a picture out of Isobel out of his pocket and gave it to Elena. Malia got up and walked over to look at it.

"This is her. This is Isobel…" Elena gasped.

"Everything he knows about vampires, he learned from her. He believes that she was killed by one."

"Do we know the vampire?" Malia asked. Stefan ignored her.

"Listen, Elena, there's a lot about Isobel that Alaric can tell you, but I need you to hold off a little while before you talk to him."

"Why?"

"I know that it's a lot to ask of you, but will you do that for me?" Elena nodded in agreement. Malia sighed.

"I promise nothing. Now, let's get to that fundraiser and make sure Damon doesn't kill anyone."