The next day the three of them spent at Matt's house, along with a subdued Tyler Lockwood. Matt was refusing to leave Vicky's side at the hospital, and Caroline's mom had police on guard 24/7. Not that they could stop a vampire who wanted in, but Elena hoped it would deter him, whoever he was, from trying.

In the meantime they could help Matt by packing up his mom's things and figuring out what needed to be dealt with for her funeral, and for all the financial and other adult responsibilities that were suddenly his.

Elena felt shitty for thinking it, but she really doubted Vicky would be any help, despite being the oldest sibling. She'd been a mess before all of this, and the trauma of the attack and her mom's death were probably only going to make her drug and emotional issues worse. She would need therapy and a lot of support and Matt was great, but he was also a teenager, and one who had just lost his mom, however crappy of a mom she'd been.

"Hey, Elena, come here and look at this," Tyler called out from the kitchen, interrupting her downward mental spiral. Elena finished folding the shirt she was holding and set it in one of the donation boxes before leaving Bonnie and Caroline to it.

"What'd you find?" she asked, stepping into the kitchen and making a mental note to do the dishes and make sure the fridge was stocked before they left.

"There was one of those crappy hide-a-safes in one of the bottom cabinets. The key was right next to it," he said with an eye roll. "But it had some stuff in it, from when we were all kids. Matt and Vicky's birth certificates, stuff like that. And this," he handed her a stapled sheaf of papers and Elena read the bold lettering across the top.

"Kelly had a life insurance policy?" she asked, honestly shocked at the idea of Matt's mom doing something so responsible.

Tyler shrugged. "I know. But, she wasn't always so bad, when we were little. Anyways, it looks like it's still valid. I could have my dad get his lawyer to look at it? Probably be a lot of help with the hospital bills and everything."

Elena smiled warmly at him, startling an answering smile out of him. "Sounds great, Tyler. I'm glad Matt has you as a friend."

He ducked his head, grimacing a little, and Elena's smile faded. He was her friend, too, even if they both forgot it sometimes.

It had been a long time since they were close though, the two rich founder's kids stuck with each other at boring adult events. They'd split along gendered friendship lines as they got older, and Tyler, without the benefit of ancestral memories to balance him out, had become little more than a privileged asshole who bullied her brother. But there was more to him than that, and she hoped him stepping up to help Matt was a sign he was growing up.

"Bonnie and Caroline have got his mom's stuff covered, why don't we go through the rest of the safe and then start figuring out their bill situation?"

He scratched at the back of his neck, a clear sign of discomfort, but nodded. "Yeah. Sounds good. Or, not good. But, whatever."

Elena laughed, only the faintest edge of bitterness to the sound. "Yeah, not good but whatever is the perfect way to describe all the post-parent death bullshit."

He grimaced again, then met her eyes with a surprisingly soft, if awkward, expression. "Uh, sorry, that I've been kind of a dick. I don't think we've talked at all since your parents…" He trailed off and she huffed out a sharp laugh.

"Died. They died. You can say it. It's not like I've forgotten." He winced and she shook her head. "Yeah. You've been a dick. And way worse to Jeremy than me. Stop that, and we're good. I know you think you need to balance Matt's niceness by being twice the teenage asshole, but I promise, none of us will hold it against you if you keep it to a minimum."

Tyler snorted, giving her a real smile. "Deal. But only if we can drink while we do this. Kelly's favorite crappy beer is in the fridge and pouring it out before Matt and Vicky get home seems like a waste."

"God yes," Elena said, dropping into a chair at the kitchen table and pulling over a stack of envelopes, too many with angry red words stamped on them. "Beer me, Lockwood."

"If there's going to be irresponsible underage drinking, we want in!" Bonnie called from the bedroom and Elena grinned at Tyler as he looked up from the fridge.

"You heard the lady. Let's get this depressing party started."

Hours later, and the bulk of Kelly's belongings that were neither personal mementos, nor of use to Matt and Vicky, had been packed up for donation or thrown away. The bills had been sorted by urgency, with an overview of how much was owed, to who, and how to pay it ready for Matt to look over when he was ready.

Bonnie and Caroline were quite tipsy and were cooing over an album of baby pictures they'd found while Tyler pretended he wasn't interested.

Elena was feeling more than a little tipsy herself, humming a song she couldn't remember the name of as she washed dishes. It was a strangely calm moment, happy almost, and then the phone rang and she screamed a little. Just a little.

"Chill, Gilbert. Just the phone," Tyler said, grinning at her. "You never used to be a jumpy drunk."

She flicked some suds at him. "Answer it, Lockwood. Or I'll make you finish the dishes."

He grumbled, but stood up from the Bonnie/Caroline/Album pile on the floor and answered the wall phone. "Donovan house."

Elena frowned at his bored tone of voice, second-guessing herself for not letting it go to voicemail. She just wanted to lighten Matt's load as much as possible. She knew, intellectually, that what had happened to Vicky and Kelly wasn't her fault. Emotionally it was hard not to blame herself, when the only vampire she knew for sure was in town was definitely there because she and her destined face existed.

"Elena," Tyler hissed at her and she almost dropped a plate. Fuck. She really was a jumpy drunk right now.

"What? Who is it?"

"He says he's Matt and Vicky's dad," he told her, eyes wide with shock, holding his hand over the receiver. "I don't. I don't know what to tell him. He said he got a call from Caroline's mom?"

She gaped at him, blinking rapidly. God, their dad? He'd left town before Matt was even born, or just after. She'd never met him and she didn't think Matt had either, at least not old enough to remember, Vicky either. Taking a breath, she summoned as much sobriety as she could and held out her hand for the phone.

Tyler handed it to her with a look of deep relief and Elena held it up to her ear. "Hello, this is your son's friend, Elena Gilbert. I'm sorry to be rude, sir, but why are you calling?"

There was a choked off sound, somewhere between a laugh and a sob. "Hi Elena. My name's Peter. I'm calling because I'm coming to Mystic Falls, I'll be there tomorrow, and I wanted to let my children know because I think they've had enough shock in their life lately."

Elena scoffed. "I don't think a phone call's going to help mute this one much."

There was a pause, during which Elena very much regretted the three beers she'd drunk, and then a deep sigh. "No, it's not. I know I've been a terrible parent. I haven't been a parent at all. But legally I have custody now and while they might not want me, I'm going to do my best to be there for them now."

Something like tears was burning in the back of Elena's throat, the desire to shout at this man for daring to think he had a right to be a parent now warring with the hope that this could be good for Matt and Vicky. "I'll let Matt know you're coming," she said quietly. "I don't know how much the Sheriff told you, but he's staying with Vicky at the hospital right now. They'll both still be there tomorrow."

"Thank you, Elena. I'm glad my son has such good friends."

"You'd better be good for him. For both of them. Because they do have good friends, a lot of them," she told him, voice as cold and threatening as Katerina at her best.

"I look forward to meeting them. Goodbye, Elena."

Elena hung up without responding and then met Tyler, Caroline, and Bonnie's astonished stares. "So Matt and Vicky's dad will be here tomorrow. Apparently he still exists and has custody now."

"You're fucking terrifying, Elena," Tyler told her. "Damn."

"Yeah she is," Caroline said, grinning widely.

Bonnie was the one to bring up the pertinent point. "We have to tell Matt. And we should not be drunk when we do it."

"Yeah. Okay, the depressing party is officially over. It's time for coffee," Elena said, clapping her hands together. "Also, Caroline, please yell at your mom for me for not warning Matt, or any of us, that she was calling their dad."

"Yes ma'am, with pleasure," Caroline said, giving her a flashy salute.

Elena returned to the sink as Tyler moved to the coffee pot—might as well finish the dishes while she sobered up. Staring at the water as it ran over her hands, Elena wondered when adults stopped feeling like a resource, a safe place to turn to. Sometimes she wondered if they'd ever felt like that.

Too early she'd known there were things she couldn't tell her parents, things it wasn't safe for anyone to know. She loved Jenna, and was very grateful for everything her aunt had done for her and Jeremy. But she couldn't bring her into vampires and destiny and death that wasn't a tragic accident. She was still barely an adult herself, trying to finish college and be a good guardian to two fucked up, grieving teenagers.

Sheila was probably the closest to someone she could trust outside of Bonnie and Caroline. She needed to talk to her. About doppelgangers and curses and if fate had a say or she'd just been really fucking unlucky. About how to keep her friends safe, from this threat and any others that showed up.

Good or bad, safe or not, they'd lost enough parents this year. Mystic Falls didn't need any more orphans.

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1. So I haven't seen the show in ages, and never got past the part where Bonnie and Damon were in the prison world and Alaric was some sort of super vampire. God that season was weird. Anyways, do they ever address how/why Damon is able to do the fog and crow thing? Cause early on it seemed like vampires had more magic stuff going on, with that and the dream entry, but I feel like that went away really quick and they never brought it up again.

2. If you have suggestions for the playlist Elena mentioned last chapter, I'm working on a doppelganger inspired one to share with y'all and would love to hear what songs make you think of various doppelgangers or the whole doppelganger myth.

3. I will, apparently, never stop misspelling doppelganger as doppleganger. Drives me bonkers.