The arrow thunked into the target, just inside the smallest of the three rings. Bonnie whooped and Elena clapped as Caroline turned to face them, flushed with success.

"I am officially a badass," the blonde said with a wide grin. "Think I could be, like, sexy Robin Hood for Halloween this year?"

"The sexiest Robin Hood," Elena agreed, grinning back at her. Caroline had picked things up faster than Elena had, when teaching herself years ago, or Bonnie, who was focused more on honing her magic and lacked their friend's natural athleticism. Caroline's years of cheerleading and gymnastics, combined with her innate drive to succeed at all costs, meant that she was going to surpass her teacher before too long.

"Perfect. We can do a whole folklore theme? Bonnie, you'd be an awesome Morgana, or Lady of the Lake? And Elena could be Van Helsing, vampire hunting badass."

Bonnie's eyes lit up, clearly already thinking of ideas, and Elena nodded. "I bet there's some Gilbert heirlooms I could use for a really authentic costume." And maybe dressing as a vampire hunter would clue one particular vampire in to her lack of desire to date him.

Caroline handed the bow to Elena. "Awesome! I have to get to practice and corral the girls into being as good at cheering as I am at being a badass archer and costume planner," she said, bright and peppy with a bloodthirsty grin. "Elena, I understand you're bowing out of cheerleading this year, but Bonnie, my darling friend, you are not exempt."

Bonnie shrugged, smile dimming into something less than enthusiastic, and Caroline went in for the kill. "Besides, I heard Stefan, our lovelorn little vampire, has joined the football team for some reason, and, my badassery aside, you wouldn't want to leave me without any backup, would you?"

Their friend huffed, and reluctantly nodded. "Fine. But you are not making me the top of the tower just because I'm 'tiny', got it?"

"Deal," Caroline told her, then winked at Elena as she slung an arm around Bonnie's shoulders and steered her toward the gate out of Elena's backyard. "How do you feel about flaming batons?"

"What?!" Bonnie's horrified exclamation echoed back toward Elena and she giggled, closing her eyes and letting the sun sink into her skin for a moment. She loved her friends so much, and she was so deeply grateful that they were still here, in her life, eagerly learning even the scary, impossible parts of it. She couldn't do any of it without them.

It broke her heart, sometimes, to think of how alone Katerina had been. Oh she was often surrounded by people, had a knack for acquiring allies despite her almost equally strong knack for betraying them in the name of her own survival. But friends? People she trusted with her heart and her life? Those she did not have. Had not had, since her babe was ripped from her arms.

Elena knew her doppelganger had done terrible things. Had seen them in her dreams, so much blood spilled. But she also knew her hurts, her fear, all of the people and potential lives she'd lost. Katerina was desperately lonely and she couldn't even admit it to herself.

So many of them were, in the end. Loved and wanted only for their faces, and not their selves. But Katerina was the only one still here. The only one like herself that Elena could actually meet, have a conversation with that would be new and real and not dead memories floating around her psyche. Of course, Katerina might just kill her, or give her to the monster who wanted Katerina's blood. But that didn't stop Elena from wondering, from hoping, that maybe she could ease some of that terrible isolation. For both of them.

She opened her eyes and took a deep breath, then went to the target and pulled out the arrows still stuck in the wood. She collected the ones that had missed entirely, and took them and the bow back inside, hiding them in her room. Their experiments in archery weren't a secret, but she preferred to keep actual weapons out of reach of her brother until she was confident in his sobriety. For now, she hoped it would work as motivation. He could join them if he convinced her he was done with pills.

Jenna had given her free use of her car, but Elena still wasn't comfortable driving, especially alone. So she jogged to Sheila Bennett's house—without cheerleading, she needed to keep up her fitness on her own.

Sheila ushered her in with a crooked smile, leading her to the living room and offering her ice-cold sweet tea before settling into the chair across from Elena and asking the pertinent question.

"Elena Gilbert, what brings you to my living room with such a long face?"

Elena just looked at Sheila, at Grams, for a moment, remembering every sleepover spent at her house. She'd had the best stories, never begrudged their shenanigans, and her homemade chocolate-covered peppermints were to die for. She'd been kind to all of them, not just Bonnie, but Elena knew the value of family, and knew how little of it Bonnie had. She'd been half an orphan long before Elena lost her parents, and now that she knew the truth, she needed her Grams more than ever.

"I, I don't want to take advantage of you, I know Bonnie is your priority and she needs you. But I'm hoping that either you know something about my family I don't, or that you can help me do a bloodline spell." Elena stopped and frowned, leaning back in her chair. Here she was, discussing her biggest secret for the first time in her life, as if it was nothing. And maybe it was. Maybe it wasn't a secret at all.

"Do you know that I'm a doppelganger?"

Sheila's eyebrows arched upwards, her head tilting to the side as she studied Elena. "I didn't expect you to know that. Your parents certainly didn't, as far as I could tell."

Elena's lips twisted. "I don't think so, but then, they never told me the truth about the Gilberts', so I don't actually know for sure." She tilted her head right back at Sheila. "Is it obvious, to a witch? Or just to a Bennett witch."

Sheila smiled, slow and sure, though there was a wariness in her eyes that Elena hadn't seen before. "A Bennett witch. If your parents told you nothing, Elena, how do you know so much about your family, and mine?"

"I remember them," she told the older woman, watching her eyes widen at every new word she spoke. "All of them. Not, everything. It comes in pieces, and without context I don't always understand them. But I remember enough. Enough to know all about the Gilberts and the Bennetts and their history in this town."

Elena leaned forward, utterly sincere, offering truth and trust. "But I don't know how a Gilbert had a Petrova doppelganger for a daughter. And I'm hoping you can help me find out. I don't want to repeat my ancestors' mistakes, or cruelties." She grimaced. "Petrova, or Gilbert. I will not use Bonnie like Katherine and Jonathan used Emily. I promise."

Bonnie's grandmother studied her in silence, the weight of her regard heavier than the weight of her magic, filling the room like air. "You have been a good friend to my Bonnie, Elena. I will help you with a bloodline spell as I have no idea which of your parents carries Petrova blood. And you will keep my granddaughter safe from whatever chaos your face brings to town."

"I promise," Elena vowed, and meant it with all her heart.

Sheila grinned, as mischievous as her granddaughter ever was, and the atmosphere of the room lightened at once. "Well then, let's figure out some Gilbert family secrets."

The other woman was far more experienced and skilled in magic, and she quickly gathered the needed components for the spell. Elena bled into a goblet, a small cut on the side of her hand, where it would least be irritated by touching things. Sheila added bayleaf, dandelion, and some shavings of hawthorne. "Wisdom, divination, and the blessings of your ancestors," she told Elena with each addition.

Delight bubbled behind Elena's answering smile, entirely separate from her determination to learn the truth of her origins. This was her first time doing magic with someone. First time learning from someone not long dead. Her life had been a secret for so long, so much of who she was hidden from everyone, and now it wasn't. Bonnie and Caroline knew some of it, Sheila even more. As terrifying and awful as vampires coming to town again had been, part of her was grateful for all that had happened since she'd seen Stefan's face in the halls of the high school.

Sheila broke her of her reverie by taking her hands, the goblet framed between them. Sheila whispered, words, not in English, that Elena couldn't quite make out. The liquid in the goblet caught flame, not red, but golden, heavy with the scent of copper. Sheila's eyes flicked to the side and a sheet of paper lifted from the table, dancing in the air until it hovered over the plume of smoke. Words appeared, indecipherable smudges of ash that gradually clarified under the force of Sheila's magic and Elena's blood.

Her hand was released with a suddenness that startled Elena, and the older woman plucked the page from the air before it could fall as the flames winked out. Sheila handed the paper to her without looking at the names, leaving it to her to share or not.

Elena looked down, almost against her will, and felt all her joy sink like a stone in her stomach.

Isobel Flemming and John Gilbert