Samantha did her best to drown out Carol Lockwood's voice as she did her job and introduced the bachelors of Mystic Falls. " And what do you do, Bachelor Number 3?"

The man in question, Number three, piped up. "Yeah, I'm a plumber."

Carol, in her typically snobby way, took this about as well as could be imagined. "Well, isn't that wonderful? We could always use more plumbers. Moving on. Number 4, Alaric Saltzman. Tell everyone what you do, Alaric."

Said man was tall and thicker with a square jaw and nice hair. He seemed handsome but oddly foreign, she knew he wasn't from Mystic Falls. "I'm working on a book about the History and Lore of Mystic Falls and the surrounding area.

"Oh, beauty and brains, ladies. This one's a keeper. Can give us a fun fact about Mystic Falls, something crazy.

"Uh, well..." He looked over to Damon, something in his eyes as the other man looked at him with a sarcastic edge.

Carol pulled the microphone away. " He's probably saving the best stories for his date. And last, but not least, Damon Salvatore. We don't have much on you."

"Well, I'm tough to fit on a card."

Samantha snorted lightly, enough that no one heard her. "General douche living off of a family inheritance, pain in my ass... those work just fine." She felt Vicki, who's arms were around her, tighten as she chuckled.

"Do you have any hobbies, like to travel?"

What happened next both infuriated (though this would take time) and confused Samantha. " Oh, yeah. L.A., New York. Couple of years ago, I was in North Carolina. Near the Duke campus, actually. I think—I think Alaric went to school there. Didn't you, Ric?" His words weren't cold, but they were oddly mocking as he and this Alaric person looked at each other. " Yeah, 'cause I- I know your wife did. I had a drink with her once. She was—she was a great girl. I ever tell you that? Cause she was - Delicious. Mmm! Mmm mmm mmm."

"Damn it Damon... " Vicki's whisper caught her off guard, she looked towards her lover who sighed with some pain. "Isobel, your mother, was Alaric's wife... and Damon turned her."

Her heart thudded, anger swelling in her chest. "He's mocking the guy over killing his wife? Well, turning her... that's... low, even for him."

"Wait, you don't care about your mom being turned by Damon?"

"She's grown, it was her choice... I wonder if Elena took it... " She turned over to find her sister, seeing that she had vanished with a very worried, pained Jenna staring after what she presumed was her. "Well... no, I bet she didn't... I need to go check up on her."

Apparently, Damon had the same idea as found her sister literally running into the handsome vamp just moments later, tears and pain in her eyes.

Damon huffed a little, amused. "Whoa. Easy there. Buy a ticket like everyone else."

"Did you enjoy that? Rubbing it in to Alaric Saltzman?"

"What?" He blinked, looking confused and baffled

"Just as I was starting to think that there was something redeemable about you."

Stefan walked over to them. " Elena."

"Am I missing something here?" Poor Damon looked confused as he sounded.

"Our Mother, Isobel she..."

He cringed. "Yeah, I know. I figured it out earlier."

Elena whipped to face Samantha, anger in her eyes. "Your just okay with it?"

"Like I told Vicki earlier, Isobel was a grown women. She could do as she pleases, besides she's basically a stranger to either of us. We don't really have a right to be upset by this... that being said." Samantha turned and socked Damon as hard as she could in the chest, hearing and enjoying the sound of the air evacuating his lungs. "That's for being dumb enough to mock a guy's dead wife. Seriously, low blow. Stop being a putz and help make things right. If he attacks you, or us, it will be on you."

Stefan, always the one to ease conflict, stepped in. "Let's just stay calm, all of us. I'll take Elena home and you can beat on my brother in peace, no?"

"That sounds perfect." Seeing it as the best option, Samantha turned to her sister and offered a warm smile. Much as she'd like to be angry at her sister, she couldn't blame her entirely for her illogical reaction to learning that Damon turned Isobel. Elena just felt everything so personally... "I'll go home with you, you can vent with me as much as you'd like then we can talk it out. 'Kay?"

Elena looked at her for a moment, before offering a long sigh. "Fine... I... fine."

Together the three of them walked out of the Grill, after kissing Vicki and Damon ( Lips and cheeks respectively) good bye. Samantha had an odd pep in her step as they got outside, a sense of freedom born of truth that filled her in a way that she couldn't entirely understand. She was happy to be alive. She was so enamored with her happiness and that feeling of freedom that she didn't realize her sister had stopped moving, and actually ran into her.

"What are you- Is that the man from before?" In an instant, she twisted her diamond ring around, gripping the gem and the magic inside. A spell came to her, one that would protect her family should the man be a threat. "He was at Trudie's when we left."

The man didn't seem to react to their accusations, in fact he seemed almost empty even as he started to speak. "I have a message for you."

Elena piped up, looking afraid even as Stefan stood in front of her. "What?"

Stefan asked. " Who are you?"

"Stop looking."

Samantha stepped in front of her sister as well, knowing that Elena was basically defenseless at the moment. "Looking for what, be clear."

"She doesn't want to know you. She doesn't want to talk to you."

It became immediately clear who he was talking about. Both twins all but whispered her name. " Isobel."

"Both of you need to stop looking. Do you understand?

That was too much for Elena. "That means we were right, She's alive? That she's a-"

Stefan shot out. "Elena, he's under compulsion. He isn't in control."

" Do you understand?"

Both sisters nodded, with Elena barely getting out a "Yes, I do."

The man looked down the street, at a truck coming their way. "Good... I'm done now." Then, without hesitation, he took a step backward, ignoring the blaring horn of the truck even as it took his life.

Samantha was unable to move, even as her sister and Stefan charged forward, kneeling by the dead man. Images, horrible visions of Logan Fell choking on his blood, the stench of his burning flesh and his final accusing look... they danced across her vision until Elena's warm hands grasped hers, pulling her away and into her car... time seemed to stretch into infinity as they drove away...

"""

Shaking and tired, from hours of her sister's ranting and the horror of the man's slaughter. She barely focused on her sister as she ranted, but still Elena spoke and ranted and freaked out but surely Elena calmed down enough to make a call on a phone she took off of the man who had just died. Together the sister's held each other as a women's voice echoed through the phone.

"Was there a problem? Did you find her? What's going on? " Cold and shallow and without any source of warmth, the voice was that of a women...

Elena, who was closer to the phone, spoke up. "Isobel?"

Click, the phone turned off... and they looked turned to each other.

"What... that... was her, she even sounds like you, Samantha."

She just nodded, Samantha. "I noticed..."

She didn't want to focus on it... and thankfully she didn't have too as her phone started ringing. A quick look at the Caller I.D. Told her it was Stefan. "What do you need?"

"Alaric just came to kill Damon."

She froze, horrified. "And he won or did reality actually kick in and he was butchered by Damon."

"The second option." Elena, who was listening since Samantha turned on the Speaker, gaped. "But that's not the important part... Alaric came back, he was wearing a ring he said it was give to him by Isobel."

Her heart dropped in her chest, a feeling of panic throughout her body. "Does it have bird on the front and a black stone?" She ignored her sister's look, knowing what could have allowed Alaric to survive something to much. It was like her brain was making connections her heart wasn't ready for...

"How did you know?"

"Emily made them, two of them, for Johnathan Gilbert. It was in her Grimoire, I never expected to see one but... they bring back any mortal killed by magical means. Damon counts I guess...We need to talk to him... I think he is either a Gilbert or a Gilbert gave one to Isobel... and I... we need to find out a lot. There is just... just so much... I... I need time. I need the rest of the day off, but I will help tomorrow... just... give me time."

Done with everyone and the problems that came with the day, and the death she had just seen, she walked into her room and quickly into the shower, only to start crying as the water hit her...

Chapter end, tell me what you think in the reviews.

This was a hard chapter but fun and sad... a little rushed but I feel it fits what trauma feels like... and the series ignored that.

Love, your Ninja Overlord,

Mika.