Disclaimer: I don't own The Vampire Diaries! If I did it would be hell of lot more gay.
Remember that in the rest of the story Alex will go by Elena!
Elena woke up groggily and sat up slowly. When she saw Ben sitting in a chair by the end of the bed, she was lying on she remembered what had happened. She looked around the room for a way out and stared at the front door.
Quietly slipping of the bed, Elena slowly stepped over Ben's outstretched legs and backed away towards the door. As she made it to the door, she looked back towards Ben to make sure he hadn't woken up and then she unlocks the deadbolt and as gently as possible she turned the lock on the door so she could open the it.
"I wouldn't." A voice said from behind her.
"Shit!" Elena cursed as she spun around and tried her best to punch Ben who was standing just a few inches away from her.
"Don't try and escape." Ben said while he stared into her eyes after he caught her hand. "Don't even move. Do you understand?"
"I understand." Elena tried to sound as emotionless as possible and from the scoff Ben gave as he turned around it seemed to have worked. Then Elena quickly opened the door and bolted out.
"Seriously?!" Anna growled as she pushed Elena back into the motel room again.
"Oh, it's you." Elena groaned. "The psychotic little girl that's stalking my brother."
"I told her not to move." Ben said before Anna could register what Elena had said. "I did that eye thing you thought me!"
"And you forgot the lesson on vervain!" Anna glared at Ben. "She's dating a vampire, Ben. Duh!"
Anna dragged Elena over to the bathroom as Elena quietly wondered why people kept assuming she and Stefan were dating, and forcefully pushed her in and then she shut the door.
"Ow!" Elena groaned as she hit the sink, then she screamed through the door at Anna. "Get fucked by a cactus you bitch!"
"Ugh." Elena turned toward the bathtub when she heard a groan.
"Bonnie?!" Elena rushed over to her groaning friend.
"Elena?" Bonnie asked slowly.
"No, I'm the ghost of Christmas past." Elena deadpanned even as she pulled Bonnie in to a hug.
"Oh my God!" Bonnie gasped. "Ben is a…"
"Vampire? Yeah it would look like that, huh." Elena shrugged.
"I'm so stupid!" Bonnie scowled at herself.
"You're not stupid Bonnie, he had us all fooled." Elena hugged her again while quietly planning to start wearing a vervain-soaked string around her hand every time she met new people. That way when she shook their hand she would automatically know if they were vampires or not.
"What's going on?" Bonnie asked. "Where are we?"
Elena quickly told Bonnie a summarized version on what was going on and finished with, "I didn't want to drag you into all of this."
"Why did you try and keep me out of it?" Bonnies voice sounded accusing.
"They need a witch to open the tomb and let the vampires out." Elena admitted. "I was going to ask a friend of Damons to help so you didn't have to be pulled in and put in danger."
Ben slammed the door open and stalked into the tiny bathroom as Elena placed Bonnie protectively behind her.
"You are wasting your time." Bonnie declared, trying to sound strong and unafraid and Elena wasn't going to be the one to tell her that it didn't really work. "I'm not going to help you."
Ben smirked darkly and grabbed Elena by the hair. "That's why she's here, motivation for you to behave. You know, you shouldn't be so desperate, you made it too easy."
Elena growled and tried to kick Ben between the legs as hard as she could. Sadly, Ben had just turned away to push Elena into the motel room so she only kicked his leg.
"Bitch!" Ben shouted as he violently threw Elena on the floor of the motel as he quickly shut the door to the bathroom.
"You are pathetic." Elena called out to him from the floor.
"Don't hurt her too much, Ben, we need her as leverage." Anna said from where she was looking through the curtains.
"Bonnies not going to help you open the tomb." Elena told Anna as she got up from the floor painfully, she probably had some bruised ribs or something.
"Oh, I think she will." Anna muttered with certainty.
"So, who is it?" Elena asked.
"What?" Anna finally turned towards Elena.
"The one you want to rescue from the tomb?" Elena already knew it was her mother but whatever, she could stall and make conversation at the same time. "Because I assume it's not Kathrine."
"Only Damon, the love-struck fool, wants to see that girl again." Anna groaned. "I want to get my mother out of that tomb. I watched as Jonathan Gilbert took her away."
"That sucks." Elena hummed.
"We are skipping the whole dead mom bonding thing and going straight to you serving your purpose." Anna growled.
"Leverage?" Elena sighed.
"This yours?" Anna held up Elenas phone. She dials a number and waits. "She's fine, for now. Tell me you have the grimoire and she'll stay fine."
Anna paused as she listened to the person on the other end. "Which means your brother has it. And I have a witch, so one if you had better meet me in the very public town square in 30 minutes so we can safely discuss how fun it's going to be to bork together." After that Anna hung up the phone.
"I'm leaving!" Anna called out and Ben opened the bathroom door and led Bonnie out. "Keep them here, compulsion won't works so just use violence."
"Right, I got this." Ben nodded and pushed Bonnie onto the bed as Anna left. "So, you are the key to the door, huh? Tell me, how long have you been a witch?"
"Is there anything to drink here?" Elena asked as she remembered Bonnies fire trick from the show.
"Are you offering?" Ben leered at her. "There's water on the night stand."
"Can I have a sip?" Bonnie asked as Elena had predicted and she had to hide her smirk behind the glass.
"Of course." Elena smiled and handed over the glass.
Bonnie quickly tossed the water on Ben and set in on fire while she and Elena ran for the door. Bonnie was out the door when she heard Elena gasp and when she turned around, she saw Ben holding Elena by the throat.
"Come back in!" Ben told her with a glare.
"No, Bonnie, run!" Elena ordered her friend.
"Come in and shut the door!" Ben tightened his grip around Elenas throat and Elena couldn't help but wonder what it was with everyone's insistent need to choke her.
"Don't hurt her!" Bonnie pleaded as she slowly walked back into the motel room.
"That all depends on you." Ben growled. "Lock the door."
"Now let her go!" Bonnie begged after she had locked the door.
"With pleasure." Ben smirked and threw Elena down on one of the beds.
"Does it make you feel better about yourself when you hurt young girls?" Elena croaked out with a sneer as she rubbed her neck. She hated calling herself a 'young girl' but needs must and all that. "That truly is pathetic."
"Elena, please stop agonizing the vampire." Bonnie pleaded, not wanting to see him hurt her even more.
"You should listen to your friend." Ben glared at Elena who scoffed but didn't say anything.
"Witch's don't have eternal life, right?" Ben asked Bonnie after a while. "So, you guy can die?"
"Yes, we can die." Bonnie muttered quietly.
Suddenly the door was kicked in and Ben screamed as the sunlight started to burn his skin. Stefan, the one who had kicked in the door, quickly rips the curtains open to allow more sunlight into the room.
"Stefan." Elena croaked with a smile as she and Bonnie hurried past him and outside.
"Are you two okay?" Stefan asked as he joined them a little while later.
"I'm fine, just a little shook up." Bonnie admitted. "But Ben hurt Elena."
"How did you find us?" Elena whispered as to not put too much pressure on her throat.
"Bonnies grandmother helped by using a locator spell while Damon distracted Anna." Stefan explained.
XOXOXOX
Elena walked into the parlor in the boarding house just as Damon put on a jacket to leave.
"So, the plan worked." Damon smirked as he looked up at her.
"Thank you, Damon, for your help." Elena smiled at him, her voice sounding like she had been smoking and drinking for years.
"You're very welcome." Damon looked cocky but had a glint of something vulnerable in his eyes.
"I talked to Bonnie and her Grams and they have agreed to help us open the tomb." Elena informed him as she fiddled with her scarf.
"I thought you didn't want to involve the Bennett witch?" Damon asked then frowned. "What's with the scarf?"
"I was going to ask Bree to help us with the tomb actually but Bonnies Grams said that it would be better and easier for a Bennett witch to break Bennett magic or something like that." Elena shrugged.
"And the scarf?" Damon asked again when it seemed like Elena wasn't going to answer.
Elena slowly pulled the scarf away from her neck to show the hand shaped bruise around her throat, "Seems like a lot of people have a thing about choking me." She shrugged with a small chuckle. "I mean choking during sex might be fun but that would at least be consensual."
"Why didn't Stefan give you his blood to heal that?" Damon softly touched her neck.
"I didn't show him at first and then I forgot about it until I started talking again." Elena looked down with a shrug.
"You can have some of my blood if you want." Damon hesitated, like he expected her to turn him down because he wasn't Stefan.
"That would be appreciated." Elena smiled gratefully. "Thank you."
Damon bit into his wrist and held it out to Elena who grasped it gently and took a couple of mouthfuls.
"Are you ready to get Kathrine back?" Elena asked as they walked out of the boarding house together a few minutes later, still having that niggling feeling of having forgot something important when it came to Kathrine.
"Definitely." Damon smiled brightly with excitement and picked Elena up bridal style to vamp-sped them to the woods.
When they arrived, there was a party in full swing and Elena hummed. "Right, the Duke party, I forgot."
"Worried Kathrine will eat them?" Damon smirked at her.
"As long as she leaves my friends and family alone and is discreet, she can go for it." Elena shrugged and then she smiled as Caroline and Matt walked up to them.
"Hey Elena." Matt smiled.
"Hello my emotional support bitch." Caroline laughed and hugged Elena then she stepped back and intertwined her fingers with Matt. "Where have you been?"
"Long story, no time to tell it." Damon said.
"I can tell you tomorrow if you want?" Elena smiled at Caroline in happiness as she subtly nodded at Carolines and Matts hands in approval.
"We haven't met." Matt held out his hand towards Damon. "I'm Matt."
"There's a reason we haven't met, Matt." Damon muttered as he gently grabbed Elenas arm and started to pull her towards the old church. "You and I are going this way."
"Sorry my dudes, but I seem to have other plans." Elena laughed as she was pulled away from Caroline and Matt.
As they arrived at the church, they heard Bonnies Grams ask if Stefan was sure that Damon and Elena would come.
Damon whistled loudly to get their attention. "Brother, witches." He strode past them with Elena walking calmy behind him with a small smile.
"Is everything ready?" Elena asked as she looked around.
"I guess so." Bonnie hummed.
Bonnie walked over to Sheila and Stefan as Sheila lights the torches while Damon and Elena watches from the entrance.
"Air, earth, fire." Sheila recited.
"Water." Bonnie held up a towards Sheila who takes it and sprinkle the water on the floor.
"Slightly disappointed that it's just tap water." Elena whispered to Damon who snorted quietly and Stefan, who had heard her, smiled.
"What's that?" Stefan asked as he saw Damon unravel something he pulled from his pocket.
"A blood bag for Kathrine." Damon shrugged. "Gotta have something to get her going and I didn't think it would be a smart idea to have Elena offer a vein."
"If you had asked, I would have agreed." Elena smiled at him.
"You would trust an unknown vampire enough to drink from you without draining you?" Damon looked disbelievingly at her.
"No, but I do trust you to not let it get that far." Elena looked earnestly up at him.
"Admit it." Damon turned to Stefan to hide his shock. "You can't wait to get rid of me."
"I actually like having you around but I know that you and Kathrine can't stay." Stefan smiled sadly. "But, promise me that you'll keep in contact, at least?"
"Hmm." Damon hummed.
"We're ready." Bonnie told them as she stood up from the ground.
Sheila and Bonnie started to recite a spell that would open the tomb with their hands clasped and eyes closed.
"What are they saying?" Damon muttered.
"Sounds like Latin." Stefan murmured back.
"Archaic Latin, actually." Elena told them. In her last life her grandfather had collected old and rare books so she had seen and heard some very old languages.
"That was pretty cool." Elena said after a few minutes as the torches flared up and the tomb creaked open.
"It worked!" Bonnie said exhilarated.
"Of course, it worked." Sheila smirked.
"I'll go build some fires." Stefan said and made his way out to where they had placed the gasoline.
"You ready?" Damon asked Elena.
"Absolutely." Elena nodded at the same time as Sheila and Bonnie asked "What?"
"You think I'm gonna go in there by myself so you can seal me in?" Damon asked as if they were stupid for even thinking it.
"Don't take her in." Sheila demanded. "I'll bring the walls down."
"You'll bring the walls down if I don't." Damon sneered. "You think I trust you?"
"As much as I trust you." Sheila glared.
"Enough!" Elena snapped. "It is my choice and I actually offered to go in with him."
"My lady, shall we?" Damon offered his left arm to Elena while he grabbed a torch with his right.
"We shall, good sir." Elena giggled.
They had been walking around the tomb for a while when Elena started to hear whispers or something. "What is that?"
"They can sense you." Damon murmured quietly.
"They won't suddenly jump up and try and bite me, right?" Elena asked softly.
"No, they are to desiccated to move at the moment." Damon reassured her.
"Okay, that's good." Elena smiled. "That means we can split up and cover more ground in the search for Kathrine."
"Good idea." Damon started to go left. "Scream if you find her or if you need help."
"Like a three-year-old who's seen a spider." Elena assured as she walked down the corridor on the right.
Elena walked around the tomb looking for a mummified version of herself, which was very weird if you thought about it, but at least she would find out if she would make a pretty corps, right?
"Here, Kathrine, Kathrine, Kathrine." Elena called out with a soft giggle. "Here girl."
The further in the tomb she gets the more vampires she sees. Suddenly she fell down after having tripped over the legs of a mummified vampire and as she looked up, she saw that his eyes were open and bloodshot with hunger.
"Oh, I'm so sorry." Elena murmured. "No one deserves this."
Elena got up slowly with a sad look at the vampire and decided that what Emily did wasn't saving these people but torturing them, driving them slowly insane with hunger and pain.
As she turned around, she gasped in surprise when she saw Anna standing a couple of feet away from her. "Oh look, it's my brother's stalker, joy." Elena grumbled sarcastically.
"Your boyfriend did this you know." Anna sneered at her as she fell on her knees besides her mother's mummified body."
"We're not…eh never mind" Elena muttered. "And his father did."
"And Jonathan Gilbert." Anna said as she stroked her mother's hair. "And I made a choice a long time ago that it would be Gilbert blood that brought her back to life. I had Jeremy all ready to go but…"
"Jeremy?" Elena gasped and turned around to run to check on her little brother. But Anna managed to vamp-sped in front of her, grab her wrist and bite down, making Elena scream in shock and pain.
"I'm going to get you out." Anna muttered to her mother as she pushed Elena down across Pearls lap and held her wrist to Pearls mouth.
"You could have just asked, you bitch!" Elena growled out as Pearl begins to drink.
"Let her go!" Stefan snarled as he pushed Anna of Elena and helped her up. Then he pushed Elena gently towards the exit, "Go, I'll be right behind you."
Elena ran out of the tomb while holding her bleeding wrist against her chest. She stopped right outside the door to be able to wrap her scarf around her wrist as a makeshift bandage.
"Elena, Stefan…" Bonnie started to say.
"He's right behind me." Elena reassured.
Both Bonnie and Sheila looked sadly towards the entrance of the tomb and Elena turned around to see Stefan standing in the door way.
"Stefan, what are you doing?" Elena walked over to him.
"It's going to be okay." Bonnie muttered quickly. "We'll fix it."
"Fix what?" Elena asked dangerously.
"I can't leave." Stefan smiled sadly at Elena and sent a glare towards the witches.
"What do you mean?" Elena looked between Stefan and the Bennett witches.
"The spell is still up." Bonnie explained. "We can't get them out yet."
"What?" Elena started at Bonnie in complete betrayal. "How could you?!"
"Even if we're able to break through the seal, we won't be able to hold it for long." Sheila informed them, avoiding Elenas dark glare.
"I'll go look for Damon and Kathrine and tell them to hurry up." Stefan said and disappeared back into the tomb.
"I think it's working." Elena said after Bonnie and Sheila had been chanting for a while.
"I just wanted my mother back." Anna said quietly as she helped her mother out of the tomb. "Jeremy's fine, he's outside and I promise not to touch him."
"Keep going, Bonnie" Sheila ordered as the torches started to falter and then she turned toward Elena. "They better hurry."
Elena rushed back into the tomb as she noticed the strain the witches was under. She heard the entrance end of the argument between Stefan and Damon as she rushed into the room.
"Damon, please." Elena pleaded and softly grabbed his hand.
Damon didn't say anything but he squeezed her hand and let her lead him out of the tomb.
Elena walked out of the tomb first, quickly followed by Damon and Stefan. As soon as they were clear Elena turned around and pulled Damon into a tight hug. She decided to not say anything about his shaking body or the wetness on her neck but she refused to let go, even when Bonnie passed out.
After a while Damon pulled back but didn't let go of Elenas hand, which made him follow her as she walked out of the church and over to her little brother.
Stefan knelt down to check on Jeremy as he started to wake up. "He's all right."
"Did anyone see the truck that hit me?" Jeremy asked as he sat up.
"No but the vampire who hit you is dead if that helps you feel better." Stefan smiled and helped Jeremy to his feet.
"It does actually." Jeremy nodded and rubbed the back of his head, then he flinched in pain when he touched a certain spot.
"Here." Stefan bit into his wrist and held it out to Jeremy. "This way you won't have to worry about a concussion."
"Thank man." Jeremy took the wrist gratefully.
Damon silently offered his own bleeding wrist to Elena, having smelled that she was bleeding. Elena smiled at him in thanks and leaned against him in silent support.
Around two hours later after having dropped Bonnie and Sheila off at Sheila's place all the while refusing to speak to either off them, Elena walked into Jeremys room dressed in her sleep cloths. "How are you feeling?"
"Physically I feel fine." Jeremy hummed and made room on the bed for Elena. "Emotionally? I don't really know. In one way I feel sad because I actually liked Anna and, in another way, I feel pissed at her for risking your life when she could have done like Damon did and brought a blood bag."
"You seem to have really bad luck when it comes to girls." Elena laughed.
"Maybe I just haven't found the right person yet." Jeremy murmured as the both of them started to fall asleep.
"Don't think I didn't catch that you said person instead of girl." Elena mumbled.
"Go to sleep, Lena." Jeremy hugged her closer and slowly fell into the wonderful world of dreams.
XOXOXOX
A few days later Elena was sitting on the porch swing crocheting while letting her thoughts run in whatever direction they want. She hadn't talked to Bonnie since her Grams funeral, still feeling betrayed by what the Bennett witches had planned to do in the tomb.
"What are you doing out here?" Jenna asked as came over while sipping on her coffee.
"Thinking, crocheting, planning world domination." Elena shrugged.
"So, the usual then?" Jenna laughed.
"Yeah, basically." Elena smiled back.
"So, you remember how I told you I would do some digging about the adoption?" Jenna asked and at Elenas interested not she continued. "Well, I might have found something. Come inside and I'll tell you."
Elena put away her work in her special hobby bag and followed Jenna. As the two of the sat down at the dinner table, Jenna pulled out her laptop. "Your dad kept everything from his medical practice – records, logs, old appointment books, etc. I found an entry from the night you were born. Patient and a birth date; Isobel Peterson."
"But you don't think that is her real name, do you?" Elena looked at Jenna with a frown.
"Pregnant teenage runaway? Probably not. First name, maybe. But where'd she get Peterson? Classmate? Best friend? So, I binged it." Jenna pulled up the right internet page and typed in a name in the search engine. "I searched for all the Petersons in this area born the same year as Isobel and found 3 – 2 men and a woman, Trudie, who lived in Grove Hill, Virginia."
"That's not far from here." Elena hummed softly.
"Watch this." Jenna typed something else into the search engine and pulled up and image of Isobel from high school.
"So that's Isobel." Elena just looked at the screen.
"Trudie still lives there." Jenna smiled and handed Elena a post-it note with an address on it. "This is her address."
"Aunt Jenna, if the whole psychology thing doesn't work out you could start your own business as a private investigator." Elena told Jenna, impressed, making Jenna blush at the compliment.
"Sadly, I couldn't find anything about Isobel." Jenna frowned uncertainly. "There is something else though. Ric, Mr. Saltzman, his wife was from around here and her name was Isobel."
"Wait, 'was' as in…?" Elena asked.
"She died." Jenna said softly.
Well, they weren't wrong, per say, Isobel was dead, just not completely. Wait a minute…if Ric had been/was technically still married to her biological mother that made him her stepfather, right? And he was also dating her aunt making him her sort of step-uncle…
'Oh My God…this sounds more and more like the plot of a very, very bad porn flick by the minute.' Elena thought in disgust.
A couple of hours later Elena was folding her laundry as she talked to Stefan who was sitting on her bed.
"So, Alaric's wife might have been your biological mother?" Stefan asked shocked.
"The way my life is going, it wouldn't fucking surprise me." Elena muttered. "I have the address for her friend Trudie."
"You wanna talk to her?" Stefan asked gently.
"I don't know. Both yes and no." Elena shrugged. "I'll admit to being curious."
"Elena did Jenna tell you anything about Alaric's wife?" Stefan wondered. "How she died?"
"No, just that she was killed and the case was never solved." Elena looked over at him and when she saw that he wasn't surprised she said. "You already knew."
"The night at the school when I went to get the journal, he told me some things about her death."
"Hmm." Elena hummed as she put the last of her laundry way.
"I should get going." Stefan said as he stood up. "I'm going to check on Damon."
"How is he doing?" Elena wanted to know, not having heard anything from Damon since they had opened the tomb.
"He's coping in his own way but I'm still worried." Stefan confessed.
"Go to him but don't force him to talk, just be there when he needs you." Elena advised.
XOXOXOX
Elena stood looking at a house that matched the address on her post-it note. "Thank you for going with me today, Caroline." She murmured as she slowly walked up the steps to knock on the front door but hesitates uncertainly.
"Are you going to knock or not?" Caroline asked from beside her. "And you are very welcome."
"Yeah, right, of course." Elena smiled awkwardly and knocked, when nothing happened Lena turned to leave a woman opened the door.
"Trudie? Trudie Peterson?" Elena asked gently.
"Yes?" The answered looking between Elena and Caroline.
"My name is Elena Gilbert and this is my best friend Caroline Forbes." Elena introduced the both of them. "I wanted to talk about Isobel Flemming."
"Well, I haven't heard that name in years." Trudie hummed. "How do you know her?"
"Do you know if she had a baby that she gave up for adoption?" Elena asked.
"My god, you're her daughter." Trudie laughed. "I was just going to make some tea, would you two like some?"
"That would be very nice, thank you." Elena smiled as Caroline nodded.
"Kitchens this way." Trudie opened the door for them to pass and Elena narrowed her eyes in suspicion.
Elena and Caroline are led into a room that's connected to the kitchen and offered seats and a mug each.
"I wasn't going to come but then I thought that I would regret it if I didn't." Elena tried to explain. "I'm sorry for just showing up though."
"It's no problem, just a bit of a surprise." Trudie reassured. "I haven't thought about Isobel in years."
"When was the last time you saw her?" Caroline asked when Elena hesitated.
"About 17 years ago, when she left to go have you." The last part Trudie directed towards Elena. "We kept in touch for a while, but, well, you know, people drift apart."
"And you have no idea where she ended up?" Elena wondered.
"I know that she was in Florida for a while, she was on her own and it wasn't easy." Trudie shrugged.
"Do you have any idea of who my father is?" Elena asked, more for Carolines benefit, already knowing who her biological father was.
"I could never get her to fess up." Trudie informed her. "Anyway, Isobel finally pulled it together and got into college on a scholarship."
"Where did she go?" Caroline leaned forward.
"Somewhere in North Carolina." Trudie hummed. "Duke, I think. Smart girl, smart school."
When the kettle started to whistle Trudie excused herself to go get it from the kitchen. When she got back from the kitchen, she carried both the tea and a photo album in her arms.
Trudie pointed at a picture of Trudie and Isobel dressed as cheerleaders after she had poured the tea for the three of them, "They came for us. The football team hadn't won in years so we were the stars."
"Now we know where you get it from." Caroline smiled at Elena.
"You're a cheerleader?" Trudie asked.
"I was but Caroline is cheer captain." Elena proudly brags about her best friend.
"Is something wrong?" Trudie asked them. "You haven't touched your tea."
"Oh, yeah." Elena took a slow sip and frowned. "What is this?"
"Oh, it's just some herbal mixture." Trudie shrugged.
"Vervain." Elena stated.
"I thought I recognized the smell." Caroline muttered.
"You know." Elena looked straight at Trudie.
"Know what?" Trudie shifted and looked around.
"You didn't invite us in and you're serving vervain tea." Elena pointed out seriously. "That leads me to the conclusion that you know about vampires."
"I think that you should leave now." Trudie stood up.
"Fine by me." Elena muttered. "Thank you for your hospitality and for the tea, not that you needed that."
"And why is that?" Trudie asked.
"We both wear jewelry filled with vervain." Caroline sneered and then she and Elena walked out without another word.
XOXOXOX
After Elena had dropped Caroline off at Matt's place she walked into the boarding house and up to Stefans room. "Stefan?"
"Better." Damons walked out of the bathroom in low hanging jeans and without a shirt. "Me."
"You look, um…" Elena stared at the pale sculpted torso.
"Dashing? Gorgeous? Irresistible?" Damon smirked as he walked closer to her and Elena put a hand on his chest when he got a little too close.
"All of the above." Elena shrugged, like it was no big deal. "And a bit wrecked."
"Did you know that I'm one of Mystic Fall's most eligible bachelors?" Damon purred at her.
"Am I supposed to be impressed?" Elena sassed with a smirk, the smirked then melted into a gentle smile. "How are you doing?"
"Never better." Damon walked over to the closet and put on a button up shirt. "What can I do for you? I'm a barrel of favors today. It's my new found purpose – how can I help people?"
"I'm just meeting Stefan." Elena laughed. "We are going to the fundraiser. I convinced him to help Jenna buy enough tickets so she could win Alaric."
"Help a guy out, will you?" Damon turned to her, showing that he had trouble with the buttons. "Can't get this."
"So, I found out who my birth mother is." Elena told him as she buttons up his shirt.
"Egh, who cares?" Damon muttered and at Elenas look he elaborated. "She left you, she sucks."
"Well, you're not wrong about that." Elena agreed and did her best not to laugh at the unintentional vampire joke. Then she looked behind Damon and smiled. "Hey Stefan."
Damon walked over and pulled on a jacket and groaned, "Ugh, I need a bigger jacket. Wow you know, an occasional sorority girl might, um, you know, help fill you out a little."
Elena giggled and asked, "Does that actually matter or is it more along the lines of you basically looking the same as when you were turned?"
"If you don't drink enough blood you get thinner but you will never really grow muscles you didn't have as a human either." Damon told her as he threw the jacket on Stefans bed and walked out of the room.
"He is so lost." Elena sadly as she looked at Damons retreating back. "Drowning in pain with no end in sight."
"He has always been the strong one, the one who never lets anything hurt him." Stefan murmured. "Seeing him so hurt and sad… I want to help but I don't know how."
"We will simply show silent support and let him know that we are here if he needs us." Elena declared.
"We?" Stefan smiled at her.
"Of course, I'm going to help." Elena vowed. "Damon is my friend!"
"Thank you." Stefan hugged her.
"For what?" Elena looked confused even as she hugged back.
"For being you." Stefan pulled back.
"Well, who else should I be?" Elena asked him with a raised eyebrow. "The Easter Bunny?"
Stefan burst out laughing, then at Elenas look he explained. "Sorry…sorry… it's just…. I got the picture…of you…in a giant…bunny onesie." At the end of the explanation he had tears running down his face from laughter and Elena had started to giggle along with him.
Around ten minutes later they had managed to calm down and Stefan asked. "How did yours and Carolines trip go today?"
"Trudie knew about vampires." Elena told him. "She refused to explicitly invite us in, she just opened the door and then she served vervain tea."
"You were right, it seems." Stefan groaned and pulled out a photo. "Alaric's dead wife was your biological mother."
"That's Isobel." Elena said as she looked at the picture. "Did Ric give this to you?"
"Yeah and everything Alaric knows about vampires he learned from Isobel." Stefan sighed. "He thinks she was killed by one."
"Huh, that sucks." Elena mumbled, then she giggled. "Haha 'sucks'."
"Listen Elena, there is a lot about Isobel that Alaric can tell you, but you need to hold off for a little while before you talk to him." Stefan looked at her seriously.
"Stefan, what are you not telling me?" Elena looked him straight in the eyes.
"Elena…" Stefan started but a slight glare from Elena made him sigh. "Alaric is convinced that Damon killed Isobel."
"Okay." Elena shrugged and started to walk out of Stefans room. "So, let's ask him."
When they made it down stairs Damon was putting on a jacket, ready to leave for the bachelor raffle.
"Hey Damon, can we ask you something?" Elena asked with a smile.
"You just did." Damon smirked. "But because it's you who asked I guess you can ask another one."
"This is Isobel." Stefan held out the photo. "From North Carolina. Do you remember her?"
"Why so interested?" Damon sneered.
"She's my biological mother." Elena explained and then, with no judgement at all, she asked. "Did you kill her?"
"Elena I'm so drunk that I don't even remember the faces of who I killed last week." Damon told her softly.
"Can you call me or something if you do remember her?" Elena asked him.
"Absolutely." Damon smiled at her, straightened his posture and plastered his usual smirk on his face. "Are you two coming? The Real Housewives of Mystic Falls await."
XOXOXOX
When the three of them arrived at the grill Damon separated from them to walk over to the bar and Stefan was stopped by an older woman who started to flirt with him. Elena smirked and left him to his faith while she walked over to where she saw a laughing Caroline and a blushing Matt.
"Hey guys." Elena smiled at them.
"Hey Elena." Matt muttered while Caroline beamed at her.
"What's so funny?" Elena looked at Caroline for the answer.
"Matt's already been hit on, like, 35 times." Caroline giggled. "He's total cougar bait."
"Not bad Matt." Elena chuckled.
"It's embarrassing." Matt muttered with a blush.
"Hey, Mrs. Donovan." Caroline smiled at Matt's mom who had walked up to them.
"Elena, honey." Kelly smiled at Elena and pulled her in to an awkward hug while ignoring Caroline.
"Hi, Mrs. Donovan." Elena forced herself not to sneer at her for the way she treated Caroline.
"Long time, no see." Kelly looked at Elena.
"How are you doing?" Elena plastered a fake smile on her face.
"Oh, same old." Kelly shrugged. "Matty tells me you broke his heart."
"I guess we have that in common you and I." Elena smiled innocently. "But I at least only broke it once."
"Mom!" Matt called out even as he was shocked by Elenas response.
"Just kidding, calm down. He found his rebound girl." Kelly glared lightly at Elena, then she glanced at Caroline and hands her some money. "Here you go sweetheart, however many that'll buy."
Caroline accepted the money and walked away with a small forced smile. Would it be possible to 'accidentally' trip Matt's mother or should she just ask Damon to eat her? Elana thought to herself.
"I just hope I don't get Bachelor 3. I dated him in high school. Not impressive," Kelly leaned in to whisper. "in any way."
"Who are you hoping for then?" Elena asked just to mess with Matt who looked a little green.
"You see the guy over there." Kelly nodded over to where Damon was talking to Carol Lockwood. "He is absolutely dreamy."
"You mean Damon Salvatore?" Elena smirked.
"You know him?" Kelly turned her whole attention towards Elena.
"You could say that." Elena said without elaborating just as Stefan walked up to them.
"You are on cruel young woman." Stefan told Elena. "You left me there, alone!"
"Did the big bad cougars scare you?" Elena smirked.
"Oh, just shut up." Stefan groaned.
"Hello." Kelly held out her hand towards Stefan, trying to look flirty and seductive as she obviously undressed him with her eyes. "I'm Kelly Donovan."
"Stefan Salvatore." Stefan introduced himself politely if a tad stiffly.
Caroline came back with a few tickets and Kelly hummed. "Very exciting." And the she walked further into the grill.
"I am so sorry, Stefan." Matt groaned with embarrassment.
"It's okay, Matt, it's not your fault." Stefan reassured him.
Elena and Stefan made their way over to where Jenna was sitting with a lot of tickets.
"You think you bought her enough?" Elena whispered to Stefan.
"Dear god, I hope so." Stefan muttered back.
"Hey, aunt Jenna." Elena hugged Jenna before she sat down.
"Elena, Stefan." Jenna smiled and hugged Elena back, then she shocked Stefan by hugging him to.
"Jenna." Stefan smiled slightly at her.
"How about we start this raffle!" Carol Lockwood called out from the stage where she was standing with the five bachelors and the woman in the grill cheered.
"Bachelor number 1," Carol walked up to a dark-haired middle-aged man with glasses. "What is your name?"
"Hank Brown." The man introduced himself with a handsome smile.
"And what do you do for a living, Hank?" Carol asked.
"I'm a chef at a small restaurant just outside of Mystic Falls." Hank told her.
"Well, well, ladies, it seems like the man can cook and if you are lucky, he might just cook you something special on your date." Carol teased the woman in the room and then she moved on to a handsome, muscular man in his late twenties. "Bachelor number 2, what's your name?"
"Eddie Garcia, ma'am." The second bachelor introduced himself.
"Oh, ma'am, huh?" Carol pretended to fan herself. "What do you do for a living?"
"I'm in the navy, ma'am." Eddie smiled.
"A man in a uniform." Carol smirked and moved on.
"You ever wear a uniform, Stefan?" Jenna asked, mostly just teasing.
"I did join up for service in World War II." Stefan admitted quietly to Jenna and Elena.
"Thank you for your service." Elena kissed him on the cheek and Jenna hugged him again as she nodded in agreement.
"You're welcome." Stefan whispered and looked at Elena in awe and gratefulness.
"And what do you do, Bachelor number 3?" Carol asked up at the stage when Elena tuned in again.
"Yeah, I'm a plumber." The man answered.
"Oh, so sexy." Jenna drawled sarcastically, making Elena giggle and Stefan smile.
"Moving on. Bachelor number 4." Carol hurried over to Ric. "Alaric Saltzman, that's quite a mouthful. What do you do, Alaric?"
"I'm a teacher at Mystic falls High." Alaric answered even as he looked highly uncomfortable.
"Oh, beauty and brains, ladies." Carol smiled at the crowed. "This one's a keeper. What do you teach?"
Elena snorted and at the looks from Jenna and Stefan she mumbled out, "Keeper…Quidditch…Harry Potter."
"History." Ric said form the stage.
"History. Oh, well, give us a fun fact about Mystic Falls, something crazy." Carol looked at Alaric who seemed to get a brain freeze or something, so she saved him from making a fool out of himself. "He's probably saving the best stories for his date."
When Carol approached Damon, Elena smiled and whispered so only Jenna, Stefan and Damon could hear her. "You got this, Damon, don't forget that you are epic."
"Yeah, you go big brother." Stefan smirked up at his brother with a teasing glint in his eyes.
"And last but not least, Damon Salvatore." Carol said into the microphone. "We don't know much about you."
"Well, I'm though to fit on a card." Damon smirked.
"Dude, you would need a whole book." Elena laughed along with Stefan and Jenna.
"Do you have any hobbies? Like to travel?" Carol asked with a smile.
"Oh, yeah. L.A, New York and a couple of years ago, I was in North Carolina. Near the Duke campus actually." Damon turned to look at Alaric. "You went to school there, didn't you Ric?" Damon started to smirk. "I know your wife did. I had a drink with her once. She was a great girl, really…delicious."
Elena stood up and walked out with shaking shoulders and Stefan hurried after her. When they got outside Stefan opened his mouth to ask if she was okay when Elena burst out laughing.
"He basically just told everyone in there that he ate Alaric's wife and they had no idea." Elena's laughter brought a smile to Stefans face. "That was awesome."
"And you don't care that Damon killed your biological mother?" Stefan asked slowly.
"Should I?" Elena shrugged. "She didn't want me and seriously, if she knew so much about vampires and still got eaten by one, what does that say about her?"
"I guess you're right." Stefan hummed, still getting used to think the way Elena had taught him to.
"Stefan." Elena grabbed his arm as she looked at something down the street. "That man."
"What about him?" Stefan asked as he turned to look.
"I saw him outside of Trudie's" Elena informed him.
"Let's go back inside and see if I did buy enough raffle tickets for Jenna." Stefan told Elena and she started to walk inside but Stefan stayed outside for a few seconds to see what the man would do.
"Ow." Elena stumbled as she ran into someone.
"Whoa, easy there." Damon caught her around the waist. "Buy a ticket like everyone else."
"Thanks for catching me." Elena smiled up at him and then she laughed. "And I give you kudos for the whole 'telling everybody I ate someone without actually telling them' thing you did."
"I remembered who the woman in the picture was when I read over the information Liz gave me. And I didn't kill her, I turned her at her request." Damon told her as Stefan walked up to them. "I hope I didn't make you sad with the way I talked about your biological mom."
"You didn't." Elena reassured. "As you said earlier, she gave me up, she sucks."
"You are one of a kind." Damon murmured and walked away but not before he patted Stefan on the arm.
"You okay?" Elena asked when Stefan just stood there.
"He patted my arm." Stefan said in wonder.
"And?" Elena smiled at him, slightly confused.
"I can't really remember the last time me and Damon had physical contact without fighting and pain." Stefan's smiled at that moment could light up a room.
"37649." Carol called out from the stage and Elena saw Jenna raise her hand.
"That's me!" Jenna beamed and walked up to carol.
"Congratulations." Carol smiled at Jenna.
"You go aunt Jenna!" Elena called out smirk. "Have fun on your date and don't do anything I wouldn't do!"
"Elena!" Jenna laughed as she tried to scold Elena while Ric blushed.
"What?" Elena smirked deviously.
"Stefan," Jenna turned pleading eyes towards Stefan. "Get her out of here!"
"I'll do my best." Stefan smiled and started to lead Elena out of the grill.
Before they could get very far the man from earlier stepped in front of Elena.
"I have a message for you." The man said.
"Huh?" Elena looked shocked and then she remembered, this man was sent by Isobel to tell her to stop digging.
"Who are you?" Stefan stepped forward to be able to protect Elena better.
"Stop looking." The man completely ignored Stefan.
"For what? The meaning of life?" Elena asked sarcastically.
"She doesn't want to know you." The man said like Elena hadn't asked anything. "She doesn't want to talk to you."
"Isobel." Elena stated.
"You need to stop looking. Do you understand?" The man asked blankly.
"Elena, he's under compulsion." Stefan informed her.
"Do you understand?" The man sounded almost like a robot.
"I understand." Elena said shortly.
"Good." The man looked down the street. "I'm done now."
The man stepped backwards into oncoming traffic. A large truck blared its horn but the driver had no time to react before the man was dead. Elena and Stefan ran into the street and Stefan kneeled down and looked at the man.
Elena on the other hand saw the man's phone and felt a pressure in her head to pick it up and after fighting it for a few moments she bent down and picked up the phone.
"Come on, let's get out of here." Stefan led Elena away.
Around a half an hour later Elena walked into the boarding house after Elena had told Stefan off the phone she found. When they walked into the parlor, they saw Damon drinking by the fireplace and Alarics dead body on the floor.
"What happened?" Stefan rushed forward. "What did you do?"
"Stefan what did we say about accusations without the whole story?" Elena asked Stefan sharply before Damon could say anything.
"You're right." Stefan looked over at Damon. "I'm sorry for accusing you without getting your side of the story."
"That's okay." Damon said shocked, then he shook his head and continued. "He attacked me."
"What happened?" Elena asked kindly.
"All I did was tell him the truth; his wife didn't want him anymore." Damon shrugged. "It's not my fault he couldn't handle it."
"And he attacked you after that?" Stefan asked.
"Yeah, even tried staking me." Damon chuckled. "He gets an A for effort."
"So where are we burying the body?" Elena wondered, knowing Alaric would be back soon but decided to have a little fun. "We could freeze him and then put him in a wood chipper."
"I like the way you think but we don't have a freezer big enough." Damon smiled at her.
Then Alaric sat up with a gasp suddenly, looking around in confusion. "What happened? What's going on?"
"Did you turn him?" Stefan asked Damon shocked.
"No!" Damon exclaimed.
"You stabbed me!" Alaric glared at Damon.
"In self-defense." Damon sneered.
"If Damon didn't turn you, how are you alive?" Elena looked at Alaric seriously.
"Elena?!" Alaric looked shocked to see her. "What are you doing here?"
"That's nonaya." Elena smiled brightly.
"Nonaya?" Alaric asked.
"None of ya business." Elena smirked. "Now again, did someone slip you vampire blood?"
"No, it's something else." Alaric flexed his hand. Then he proceeded to tell them about the ring and what Isobel had told him.
"Now there are magic rings?!" Elena groaned, "What is my life? I mean seriously. My history teacher is technically my stepfather and also my sort of step uncle, this really is turning into the bad plot for a porno."
Damon burst out laughing after Elena was done with her mini rant, Stefan shook his head with a smile and Alaric looked ready to either faint or puke.
"I need to go." Alaric was up and out of the house before Damon had managed to calm down.
"How do we know he won't try and kill us?" Damon asked as he looked towards the door.
"We don't." Stefan shrugged. "But we'll keep an eye on him."
"So… what should I do with the phone?" Elena asked after a while.
"What phone?" Damon asked confused.
"Oh, right, we didn't have time to tell you about that before Alaric woke up." Stefan said and told him about the man at the grill that had been sent by Isobel.
"Call her." Damon suggested.
"The only reason I might even think about calling her is to rip her a new one." Elena growled. "I don't really care if she kills people but if she does, she could do it her fucking self! Get her own hands dirty instead of compelling a man into committing suicide, that's just cowardly on so many levels."
"You are kinda hot when you are angry." Damon murmured but luckily only Stefan heard him and nodded in agreement.
Elena picked up the phone with a glare and dialed the only number programed into it."
"Was there a problem?" A female voice answered. "Did you find her? What's going on?"
"The problem is that you are a coward and next time you want to tell me something?" Elena seethed. "Don't!" Then she hung up the phone.
XOXOXOX
This is a deleted scene that I was going to use first but I changed my mind. But I thought you all might want to read it, so, enjoy.
Elena realized she had a great opportunity.
"You have a Gilbert ring." Elena gasped, managing to sound very shocked.
"Gilbert ring?" Damon and Stefan asked.
"That ring he is wearing is a Gilbert ring." Elena explained as she pointed at Alarics hand. "I read about them in the Gilbert journals, from what I could understand they were created as protection against supernatural death."
"So, if I killed him again, he would just come back?" Damon asked then a smirk spread slowly over his face. "But if you killed him, he would stay dead?"
"In theory, yes." Elena nodded, then she shrugged. "But I don't know if me looking like Kathrine is supernatural or just freaky."
"Were did you get the Gilbert ring?" Damon asked dangerously.
"Isobel." Alaric whispered, still shocked over everything that had happened but the thing that shocked him most was that Elena had talked about killing him without care. He looked up at her, "Would you really have killed me?"
"To save my family and friends?" Elena asked. "Without hesitation."
XOXOXOX
A/N: chapter is now done!
I hope you all liked it :)
And now an important question: do you want some specific scene to be from Damons or Stefans perspective? Or do you guys like it when it's just from Elenas perspective?
And who should I pair Elena with? You can review your option and I'll tally them and the one who gets the most 'votes' so to speak, wins :)
The tally at the moment are:
Elijah: 25
Klaus: 27
Kol: 7
Finn: 3
Damon: 7
Elijah & Klaus: 2
Elijah & Klaus & Kol: 1
Damon & Klaus: 2
Klaus & Kol: 2
Until next time
XOXO
Nyxi