Chapter 15: A Few Good Men
January 7, 2010
Dear Diary,
Bonnie's Grams died… I don't know what happened. Bonnie said she was tired and she went to lay down but when Bonnie went to check on her she wasn't breathing. Elena was with Bonnie when it happened, so at least she wasn't alone. After everything Bonnie went to stay with her aunt for a bit and we're just waiting for her to come home. I don't know how to react to her passing after I've spent so much time with her. It feels like I lost a grandmother too. I just hope Bonnie feels better soon.
Elena and Ellie sat on the front porch swing together, with Elena's legs draped over Ellie's lap. "Do you think we should call to check in on Bonnie?" Elena asked as she fiddled with the pages of her book.
For whatever reason, Elena had also taken the death of Miss Sheila rather hard and had been worried about their friend nonstop. "Yeah, I think we should. I haven't heard from her for a few days." Ellie agreed as Elena pulled out her phone and started to call their friend.
It rang for a minute until Elena spoke. "Hey Bonnie, it's me, just checking in, seeing how you're doing. We miss you here. Don't let your aunt drive you too crazy. Come home soon. We love you." Elena ended her message as Jenna walked up onto the porch, coffee in hand.
"What are the two of you doing out here? It's cold." Jenna asked.
"Thinking." Ellie replied.
"Writing." Elena said at the same time. "The, uh, funeral for Bonnie's grandma, it brought back a lot about mom and dad." Elena confessed and Ellie tensed at the mention of their passed away parents. "I was wondering. You said that you would do some digging about them, the adoption." She clarified.
"Right." Jenna nodded.
"So did you?" Elena asked. "Dig?"
"Come on inside you two." Jenna said and then twins knew that meant she'd found something. They followed after her and stood behind her as she pulled up something on her laptop. "Your dad kept everything from his medical practice. Records, logs… old appointment books. I found an entry from the night the two of you were born. Patient and a birth date. Isobel Peterson."
"Do you think that's her real name?" Elena asked.
"Probably not." Ellie told her. "If you were a pregnant teenaged runaway… would you be honest either?"
"I'd have to agree with Ellie. Pregnant teenage runaway, probably not. First name, maybe. But where'd she get Peterson? Classmate? Best friend? So, I binged it." Jenna told them as she pulled up the search engine. "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." Elena said.
"Well, watch this." Jenna said as she pulled up an old Grove Hill alumni page. It showed a picture of two cheerleaders, a blonde and a brunette. Trudie Peterson and Isobel Flemming.
"Isobel." Ellie said softly and she felt an ache in her heart for a woman she'd never met. "She was a cheerleader." Ellie added, grinning at Jenna and Elena.
"Trudie still lives there." Jenna told them. "This is her address." She passed a sticky note over to Elena.
"What about Isobel?" Elena asked.
Jenna hesitated, before confessing, "I couldn't find anything about her." The twins sat down silently, looking at the father's appointment book. "Listen, there's something else. Mr. Saltzman, Ric, his wife was from around here. And her name was also Isobel."
"Wait. 'Was' as in…" Elena trailed off, afraid to finish the question.
Jenna looked terribly sympathetic as she told them softly, "She died." Ellie reached over and took a hold of Elena's hand as Jenna explained, "I don't know much, but as far as I know, she was killed, but the case was never solved." That was enough for Ellie to excuse herself to go up to her room to try and get it together.
She only reemerged from her room with the banging on her bedroom door. When she opened it, it revealed Elena standing there anxiously, sticky note in hand. "Do you… do you want to come with me? Should we go see her?" Elena asked nervously. "I just really want answers."
There was no hesitation as Ellie nodded and grabbed her coat. "Let's go, it shouldn't take too long to drive there." the twins rushed out of the house and into the car. "You drive? I navigate?"
"Works for me." Elena agreed. "I mean this is probably not my best idea but I don't know what else to do."
"You don't have to explain yourself to me, Elena. I get it. I want answers too." Ellie told her. "Turn left up at the light." As Elena followed her instruction, Ellie added, "I wonder if Trudie even knew that Isobel was pregnant. And if our birth mother was Isobel, Mr. Saltzman's wife, do you think he knew that she had been pregnant? Or would she have hidden it from him? Also what would that make him to us? A step-dad? Would we be technically related at all? How would that work?"
"I have no clue honestly. I wonder if he'd even want anything to do with us in that way." Elena told her.
"Turn right at that stop sign up there." Ellie said. "I wonder if Trudie would know who our birth father is? We should ask her. I mean we should if she doesn't slam the door in our faces. We also have to tell Jeremy. I don't like keeping something this big from him. I have no idea how he's going to react to this."
"I know. I know." Elena sighed. "We'll tell him soon. Maybe we can wait until we get more answers on our birth parents?"
"Turn right at this stop sign and then we're good for a few miles." Ellie said as she thought over what Elena said. "We just need to tell him sooner rather than later and definitely before he finds out from someone else."
"You're right. I just don't know how to tell him. Like how do we tell him something like that? Hey sorry, Jer, we're not actually your blood sisters like you thought. Also our mom is actually Mr. Saltzman's dead wife so there's that." Elena deadpanned and Ellie couldn't help but scoff at her expression. The rest of the ride was filled only by the soft music on the radio and the occasional direction from Ellie.
"Look! There it is!" Ellie said and she could feel her heart beating a little harder in her chest. The house was nice and two stories and Ellie followed Elena up the steps of the porch before they both hesitated at the door. Elena almost turned around to head back to the car before Ellie squeezed her hand and said, "Now or never." Elena nodded and Ellie could see the way her sister was preparing herself for whatever was about to happen.
Elena knocked on the door loudly and they both felt the anticipation bundling in their stomachs. Just as they began to turn to leave, the door opened, revealing a pretty blonde. "Trudie?" Elena questioned. "Tru-Trudie Peterson?"
"Yes." She replied warmly.
"Um, my name is Elena Gilbert and this is my sister Ellie. We wanted to talk to you about Isobel Flemming." Elena told her.
"Well, I haven't heard that name in years." Trudie confessed. Her warm smile made Ellie a little less nervous. "How do you know her?"
When Ellie saw Elena hesitate, she took over and said, "We think that, um, well… do you know if she had a pair of twins that she gave up for adoption?"
The shock was clear as day as the realization struck the blonde. "My god." She said. "You're her daughters." Trudie laughed lightly before saying, "I was just gonna make some tea. Would the two of you like some?"
"Sure." Elena agreed as she smiled at the older woman.
"Uh, the kitchen's this way." She stepped aside and Ellie walked in first, followed by Elena before they let Trudie lead the way.
"I wasn't going to come." Elena told her. "I didn't think I was, but I was driving and I hit this stoplight, and it made me think about when I was learning how to drive and then, my mom would always warn me about this blind turn on the left-hand side, and then I was thinking about my mom, and so I went and got Ellie and… we had your address. I'm sorry for barging in." Elena apologized.
"It's no problem." Trudie assured her. "Um, just a surprise though. I haven't thought about Isobel in years."
"When was the last time you saw her?" Ellie asked curiously.
"About seventeen years ago." Trudie told her. "When she left to go have the two of you. We kept in touch for a while, but, well, you know, people drift apart."
"And you don't know where she ended up?" Elena asked.
"She was in Florida for a while. She was on her own. I know it wasn't easy."
"Do you have any idea who our father is?" Elena questioned.
Trudie paused for a moment, before smiling and admitting, "I could never get her to fess up. Anyway, she finally pulled it together, got into college on a scholarship."
"Where did she go?" Ellie asked.
"Somewhere in North Carolina. Duke, I think. Smart girl, smart school." Trudie told them as the kettle started to whistle. "Let me just grab that."
"I can't believe we're finally getting answers." Ellie whispered as she reached over to grab Elena's hand to squeeze it. When Trudie returned she handed them both a cup of tea, and Ellie blew lightly on it before taking a sip. "This is a neat flavor." She commented with a smile.
"I'm glad you like it." Trudie told her.
"Um, we managed to find an alumni website… it had a picture of you and Isobel as cheerleaders?" Ellie mentioned and Trudie smiled before she stood again.
Trudie was back a moment later, yearbook in hand. It didn't take long for her to open it to a page that had the same photo that they'd seen on the website. "Ah. They came to the games for us. The football team hadn't won in years. We were the stars. Well, Izzie was but I was a damn good backup."
"Heh, this is great. Thank you." Elena told her.
"You're welcome." Trudie said.
"Elena and I are actually cheerleaders too, well Elena's taking a break from it but I'm still one." Ellie told the blonde.
"Really? I'm sure you two must be amazing cheerleaders like she was." Trudie praised. "You haven't touched your tea." She said to Elena, who's cup remained untouched despite Ellie's being emptied already.
"Oh, yeah." Elena replied as she picked up her cup.
"Excuse me, but where's your restroom? I think I've had a bit too much to drink." Ellie asked.
"It's just down the hall to the left right there." Trudie said.
"Thank you." Ellie stood and headed for the direction Trudie had pointed her too.
As she left she could hear Elena asking, "What is this?"
She found the bathroom easily enough and finished quickly. Once she'd washed her hands she pulled out her phone to call Bonnie. Like Elena, Ellie was met with Bonnie's cheerful voice telling her to leave a message. "Hey Bon, I know Elena called you a little bit ago, but I wanted to call and tell you I love you a lot and if you need anything, let me know. I hope to hear from you soon Bon." It was hard to go a while without talking to Bonnie when they normally spent so much time together. Even when Ellie and Elena's parents died, Bonnie had spent a great deal of time with them, never leaving them alone for long. Caroline had been the other constant, for the first few days she hadn't even let Ellie go to the bathroom alone, waiting patiently outside the door in case the emotions had overwhelmed her friend.
Shaking her head to get out of her thoughts, Ellie walked back into the kitchen to see both Elena and Trudie standing. "Here Ellie." Elena said as she passed her the coat she'd been wearing.
Ellie could almost feel the tension in the room like it was a physical thing. "Is everything alright?" She asked, but slid her coat on anyway. Trudie looked terribly nervous, almost frightened. But what on earth could Elena have done to get that reaction out of the older woman?
"Um, yeah, we just have to go now." Elena said. "Let's go."
"Ok… uh, thank you for letting us talk to you. It was really great to get to know a little more about Isobel." Ellie said politely as she held a hand out for Trudie to shake. The other woman did so, and Ellie could feel the blonde's hand tremble just a bit when Ellie grabbed her hand. "Sorry again for barging in. We'll be going now."
Trudie nodded. "Thank you. Goodbye."
With that Elena practically dragged Ellie out of the house as she zipped up her jacket. "Elena what the hell happened when I went to the bathroom?" Ellie questioned. "Trudie looked like she'd seen a ghost or something."
"I don't know." Elena told her as they approached the car. Something dark on the road behind them caught Ellie's eye and she looked up to see a man standing in the middle of the road, just staring at them.
"Elena." Ellie warned, her voice low. Her sister looked up at the call of her name and saw Ellie's face drained of color. She followed Ellie's line of vision and also saw the man standing there ominously. "Get in the car." Ellie whispered and the two girls scrambled inside the vehicle. The moment the car started up, the man started walking towards them. "Elena, go, go, go." Elena sped down the road, heading back to Mystic Falls. "God what the hell was that?" Ellie asked as she looked out the back window to make sure the guy didn't somehow manage to follow them.
"I have no idea." Elena said, clearly shaken by the man as well.
"Are you sure you don't know what happened back there with Trudie? It's just a little weird that the mood totally changed by the time I got back." Ellie pressed, curious for answers.
Her twin was definitely sketchy with the way she answered. "I really don't know Ellie. Maybe talking about Isobel got her upset? I mean if we lost Bon suddenly don't you think it would be a little hard to talk about her too?" Elena asked. Something was off. That much was clear, but Ellie couldn't figure out what it was. Elena didn't say much else the rest of the way home, which left Ellie to stew in her thoughts.
No matter what potential reason she came up with to dismiss Trudie's odd behavior, nothing seemed to sit right with her. It also didn't help that ever since the school year had started, Elena almost always seemed sketchy. Did it have something to do with Elena then? But Elena's never really done anything. She was lost in thought and didn't even realize how long it had been until she felt a tap on her arm. "Hmm? What is it?"
"We're home. Don't you need to be getting to The Grill?" Elena asked.
Glancing down at the time, her eyes went wide. "Crap, yeah I do. Aren't you coming?"
"I am. I just need to swing by Stefan's first to talk to him. I'll see you there?" Elena said.
"Yeah, ok, just don't be late." Ellie said as she stepped out of the car and rushed over to her own. Elena pulled out first and turned to head towards Stefan's as Ellie turned on her car and blasted the heat to fight the chill that made the inside of her car feel like a freezer. She drove quickly, hoping that she wasn't late for anything. By the time she arrived there were several cars already parked at The Grill, but she managed to find a spot next to Caroline's car. "Hey, hey, am I late?"
Caroline looked up from where she was putting money in the box and smiled at her. "No, you're good. But you will never believe what happened." Caroline told her and Ellie sat down on the stool next to her.
"What happened?" Ellie asked.
"Ok, so me and Matt were at his house and we were watching football-" Caroline started and laughed when Ellie made a face at the sound of watching football. "Yeah I know right? I don't know how guys watch football on tv it is sooo boring. But anyways, I told him I was bored, and then reminded him that we had the house to ourselves, you know."
"How scandalous." Ellie teased.
The blonde scoffed and said, "Yeah for like five seconds. I mean we were both topless and then his mom of all people walks in on us."
"Oh my god no! Kelly did not walk in on you guys!" Ellie said in shock. "The odds of that happening were literally slim to none. You must have been mortified."
"Mortified doesn't even cover it." Caroline groaned. "I swear I think she hates me."
"How could anyone hate someone as amazing as you, Care?" Ellie asked softly, slinging an arm over her blonde friend's shoulder. "You're a catch." She assured her. "I'm sure everything will be fine. Besides, I think Matt really likes you a lot."
"I still wish Mrs. Donovan wouldn't hate me." Caroline whined.
"Would you like something to distract you?" Ellie asked.
"Yes please."
"Ok, so you know how we told you that me and Elena were adopted?" Ellie questioned. Once Caroline nodded, Ellie said, "Well, Jenna did some digging and found out who our birth mother is." Caroline was clearly shocked and Ellie nodded. "I know right? Turns out she got pregnant as a teenager and managed to find my dad and he delivered me and Elena. She was from Grove Hill and she was a cheerleader too."
"That's insane. How did Jenna figure it out?"
"Dad was super meticulous about record keeping. Jenna found an appointment book with an entry on the night Elena and I were born. We were to talk with our birth mom's childhood best friend to try and find out more." Ellie said.
"How did that go?" Caroline asked as she adjusted the tickets on the counter.
"It was going fine and then I went to the bathroom and when I came back, there was this weird tension and Elena and I had to leave. I don't know what happened and Elena didn't really explain anything either. But apparently, our birth mom might have gone to Duke."
Their conversation was interrupted by Mrs. Lockwood using the microphone to say, "Tickets for the raffle are now on sale. All proceeds benefit the annual Founder's Day Celebration."
Ellie spotted Mr. Saltzman talking with Jenna and her heart ached with sympathy for him. He had been married to Isobel and had to deal with that loss seemingly alone. Now he had the bomb dropped on him that his wife had daughters he never knew about. He and Jenna looked slightly uncomfortable, but Ellie still thought that Jenna had done the right thing by telling him the truth. Her favorite aunt made her way to the tickets and handed Caroline some money. "Hey, Jenna. How'd that go?" Ellie asked as Caroline passed Jenna two tickets.
"About as well as could be expected. He needs time. I get it." Jenna confessed. "Do you think I did the right thing by telling him?"
"Absolutely, he deserves the truth. Even if it isn't pleasant. I'm sure he appreciated the honesty." Ellie assured her. "Hopefully you'll get the winning number and get a date with him to smooth everything over." She said with an over dramatic wink.
"You are something else Ellie. I think I'm gonna get myself a drink." Jenna laughed before walking off to the bar.
"What was that about?" Caroline asked curiously.
Despite Caroline being her best friend, Ellie decided it would probably be better to keep the fact that Mr. Saltzman was her birth mother's husband to herself. At least until she could talk to him about it. "Just boy drama with her and Mr. Saltzman. She had to tell him something that took him by surprise I guess."
"Honesty is definitely better." Caroline agreed. "Hey Matt."
Matt walked over to them with a smile, pressing a kiss to Caroline's cheek. "Hey, Care. Hey, Ellie. How are ticket sales going?"
"Pretty good, we've made a good bit so far." Caroline told him. "Have you been having fun with all your fans?" She asked teasingly.
He groaned but smiled at her. "Oh yeah, loving it." He said sarcastically.
"Loving what?" Elena asked as she walked up to them.
"All his fans apparently." Ellie supplied.
"He's already been hit on like thirty five times." Caroline told them. "He's total cougar bait."
"Impressive." Elena and Ellie replied.
"More like embarrassing." Matt said but he was grinning at Caroline.
Caroline laughed but stopped suddenly to say, "Hi, Mrs. Donovan."
Mrs. Donovan ignored her greeting to smile brightly at Elena and say, "Elena, honey. Ellie, honey."
"Hi, Kelly." Elena beamed as she hugged the older woman and Ellie gave Kelly a smile before hugging her as well.
"Long time no see." Kelly told them.
"How are you doing?" Elena asked her, but Ellie focused on how Caroline looked rejected as she watched Elena and Kelly interact.
"Same old." Kelly told her. "Oh, Matty tells me you broke his heart."
"Mom." Matt warned.
"Just kidding." Kelly grinned. "Calm down. He found his rebound girl." She said as she glanced over to Caroline as Ellie tensed. Even if it was the parent of one of her friends she didn't take lightly to people insulting Caroline for no reason. "I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up with you Ellie. You and Matty have always been so close, even when he and Elena were together. You'd make a good couple just like he and Elena did." There was nothing Ellie could even think of saying. She and Matt had only ever been friends so she had no clue why Kelly would even suggest them being together. "Oh, here you go, sweetheart. However many that'll buy. I just hope I don't get bachelor three. I dated him in high school. Not impressive. In any way." Caroline handed Kelly a strip of four tickets and the woman replied, "Very exciting."
Caroline's smile faded as the woman walked off and Ellie watched as Elena's posture shifted. She noticed Mr. Saltzman a split second later and grabbed a hold of Elena's forearm as he walked farther away from them. "Elena I know you want more about her, but give him some time. He didn't know about us either." Ellie told her softly.
"He didn't?" Elena asked.
"Nope. Jenna told him earlier and he was totally clueless. So maybe give him some time to process that Isobel had twins she never told him about. We've had time to process it. He hasn't." Ellie explained.
"Yeah. You're right." Elena said. "I'm gonna go find Jenna."
"Ok. See you later." Ellie said as Elena walked into the crowd to find their aunt. She turned back to Caroline and grinned. "Hey, Care Bear, do you still have the other half of Kelly's tickets?"
Caroline frowned but nodded. "Yeah, here they are." She said as she offered up the strand of tickets. Ellie snatched them from her hands and scanned over the numbers. "What are you doing?"
"Oh don't worry about it." Ellie said secretively. "Oh look, you have customers hoping to be the lucky lady to one of these bachelors. Hi would you guys like to buy some tickets? Caroline will help you with that." Ellie walked off before Caroline could question her further.
She looked around for Mrs. Lockwood and found her talking to the Salvatore she hated the most. Thankfully, just before she reached them, he looked off at something at the other side of The Grill and said, "Pardon me."
Once he walked away, Ellie walked up to Mrs. Lockwood with a grin. "I know that face Ellie. You're up to something."
Ellie gave her a saccharine smile. "Mrs. Lockwood would you mind doing me a small favor?"
The older woman just sighed and gave the young girl a smile. "What can I do for you, Ellie?"
"Well, you're no fan of Kelly Donovan and while she's normally nice enough to me, she happened to say a few things that rubbed me the wrong way." Ellie said, with an expression of pure innocence. "And I do happen to know that she really doesn't want bachelor three. And I happen to have the other half of her tickets."
Mrs. Lockwood reached over and pulled off one of the tickets. "Well, bachelor number three it is. Go put the rest of those in with the mix. But if I'm doing you a favor, then I need you to do me a favor."
Laughing brightly, Ellie nodded. "What can I do for you Mrs. Lockwood?" She asked.
Producing some cash she told the teen, "Get me however many tickets that'll buy and then bring me both halves for one of those." She winked at Ellie and the Gilbert nodded in understanding. "Thank you honey." Ellie went back over to where Caroline was still selling tickets and handed over the money.
"I'm pretty sure like all these guys are too old for you." Caroline laughed.
"It's not for me, idiot. It's for Mrs. Lockwood. She asked me to get her some tickets. So how many does that get her?"
"Three tickets. Here you go. Will you put the other half in the raffle thing?" Caroline asked.
"Sure thing. Just let me take these to Mrs. Lockwood." Ellie said as she slyly kept what Mrs. Lockwood would need to get a date with whichever bachelor she wanted. "Here you go, Mrs. Lockwood. It is always a pleasure doing business with you." She said with a grin.
"I swear sometimes I don't know who's more trouble, you or Tyler." Mrs. Lockwood said.
"Oh, he's big competition maybe I need to step my game up." Ellie joked.
After a while they were finally going through the introductions for the bachelors. They were on the one Kelly didn't want as Mrs. Lockwood asked, "And what do you do bachelor number three?"
"Yeah, I'm a plumber."
"Well, isn't that wonderful?" Mrs. Lockwood asked but it was more than clear that she wasn't all that impressed. "We could always use more plumbers. Moving on."
"Oh look it's your man, Jenna." Ellie teased, bumping shoulders with her aunt.
"Hush." Jenna said, focused intently on the bachelor on stage.
"Number four, Alaric Satlzman. Wow, that's quite a mouthful." Mrs. Lockwood said as Elena also bumped shoulders with Jenna. All three of them were grinning. "What do you do, Alaric?"
"I'm a teacher at Mystic Falls High."
"Oh, beauty and brains, ladies. This one's a keeper. What do you teach?" She asked.
"History."
"History. Oh, well, give us a fun fact about Mystic Falls, something crazy." She prompted. He looked over at Damon who was waiting with a look of fake interest on his face. After he kind of hesitated, Mrs. Lockwood saved him, "He's probably saving the best stories for his date." Stepping over, she said, "And last, but not least, Damon Salvatore. We don't have much on you."
"Well, I'm tough to fit on a card." He said smoothly.
"Do you have any hobbies? Like to travel?" Mrs. Lockwood suggested.
"Oh yeah, LA, New York. Couple of years ago, I was in North Carolina." Damon said. Ellie looked up sharply, focusing on him instead of ignoring him like she'd been trying to do. "Near the Duke campus, actually. I think… I think Alaric went to school there. Didn't you, Ric?" When he didn't reply, Damon continued. "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… she- delicious." Ellie suddenly felt nauseous at the thought of Damon and her birth mother together in any sense of the word.
Elena also looked entirely horrified, maybe even more so than Ellie. "Are the two of you ok?" Jenna asked carefully.
"I just need some air." Elena said, standing suddenly and walking away quickly.
"Do you want to go with her?" Jenna asked.
"Stefan went with her. She'll be fine. I think I might throw up though." Ellie said as she put her head down on the table. She could feel Jenna rubbing her head and she was grateful for her wonderful aunt.
She only looked back up once the bachelors were getting matched with dates. "And bachelor number three goes to three seven four five eight."
Bless that Mrs. Lockwood because Kelly's unimpressed voice cut through the crowd. "That's me."
"Ah, Kelly Donovan. Lovely." Mrs. Lockwood said sarcastically as Kelly snatched the other half of her ticket out of Mrs. Lockwood's hand. "You and the plumber should have so much fun." Once Kelly had walked off, Mrs. Lockwood put her hand back in the container and pulled out a ticket. "And bachelor number four, Alaric Satlzman, goes to three seven six four nine."
"That's me." Jenna announced and Ellie couldn't help but smile as her aunt happily walked towards the stage.
It made Ellie really happy to see the way Mr. Saltzman was smiling too. "Congratulations." Mrs. Lockwood said sincerely. "And bachelor number five, Damon Salvatore. Three seven five five two. Would you look at that? Three seven five five two. What are the chances? Me. Where'd he go?"
Since the last of the bachelors had been paired off, Ellie walked over to where Jenna and Caroline were. "Hey, Jenna, I think I'm gonna go home and go to bed. I'm still feeling pretty sick to my stomach." Ellie told her.
Jenna looked incredibly sympathetic and nodded. "Ok, get home safely. I'll see you at home in a bit."
"Ok, love you guys." Ellie said to both blondes. The ride home was quick and she undressed as quickly as possible, getting into pajamas and under the covers as fast as she could. The thought of Damon doing anything with her birth mother caused the sick feeling to follow her into her dreams.
Author's Note:
Thank you guys for over 8000 views on this story! I didn't expect for it to get this many reads. I also never expected for it to get over 100 followers! It means so much to me! Once again, it is still Ramadan, so Happy Ramadan to those who celebrate it!
To Only Reviewer: Yes, I couldn't resist having her tease him. Also, I didn't even really think about the fact that, like with many other things that the writers didn't want to deal with, they swept it under the rug that Bonnie was the reason Anna died because she didn't disable the device. So, whether Jeremy and Bonnie get together or not isn't set in stone and I'll consider what I want to do about them.
To Mimi: I'm glad you love Jeremy and Ellie's bond, they make my heart soft when I write them together. But I'm looking into the removal of mind compulsion and haven't yet made up my mind on what I want to do about it.
To Lilomaus223: Unfortunately, Sheila did die. If we're honest, at the time I wrote this saving her didn't even cross my mind. But Ellie is going to have a lot of guilt over her death when she finds out that it was a spell related thing, and I think that it influenced some of the decisions she made. Also, if anything, it's going to give her a reason to protect her secret a little bit more.
To Guest: Trust me, Ellie isn't going to be happy with the decisions Elena's made when she finds out everything that's happened. And, while I haven't written it yet, there's more than likely going to be a blowout because of it. Damon has hurt way too many people that Ellie cares about for her to not be pissed.
To Guest (2): Sadly, even with some assistance from Ellie it wasn't enough. The whole thing with Ellie getting a nose bleed and scaring the crap out of her friends was actually her getting channeled by Bonnie, though the other girl was doing it unintentionally, which is why the connection wasn't strong enough. I'm going to do my best to keep her from making insanely stupid decisions for Elena though. But, of course, there will be some stupid decisions that still happen. Also yes, if someone talked to my friends like that I'd get furious.
To Oz: Oz, you genius, that's actually a brilliant idea. There's a lot of options rolling around in my head on how I can work with that.
To RiRi: I know right? I don't know of a lot of fics I've read where they have Tyler being really close to the OC, but Ellie and Tyler's friendship has been as easy to write as her friendship with Caroline. It always makes me soft to write Tyler being protective over Ellie.
-Madame Magic
Posted: 5/15/20
