A man was backpacking through the woods near the old church ruins. He heard sounds of twigs snapping and quickly turned to see the previously mummified vampire.
"Jeez! You scared me," the man laughed.
"Do you know what day it is?" the vampire asked him.
"Saturday."
"And what year?"
"It's 2010. Are you OK?" the man asked him.
"Thank you."
"Wait, what's your name?"
"It's Harper, sir." The man inched closer to Harper and observed him and his strange clothes.
"How did you get out here? And why are you dressed like that?"
"You seem like a very nice person. I'm sorry," Harper said.
"Sorry for what?" Harper extended his fangs and bit down on the man's neck making him scream loudly in pain and fear.
After killing the man, Harper took his clothes and put them on. He patted himself down as the man's phone started to go off in the pocket. Confused, Harper took the phone out and threw it down on the ground before quickly leaving the woods for Mystic Falls.
Elena sat outside of the house on their porch swing, her journal laid out on her lap and her phone to her ear. She was trying to get ahold of Bonnie, but only got her voicemail.
"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," Elena told her as Jenna walked out onto the porch while sipping coffee. "Come home soon. Love you," Elena sighed while hanging up.
"What are you doing out here? It's cold," Jenna told her.
"Thinking, writing," Elena said showing her the journal in her lap. "The, uh, funeral for Bonnie's grandma, it brought back a lot about mom and dad. I was wondering...you said that you would do some digging about them, the adoption."
"Right."
"So did you? Dig?"
"Come on inside. I want to tell you and Chloe together," Jenna told her. They both went inside to see Chloe looking at her phone. Jenna pulled out her laptop and sat next to Chloe before pulling up the internet. "Your dad kept everything from his medical practice—records, logs, old appointment books. [She pulls out a journal and opens it, showing a page to Elena.] I found an entry from the night you were born. Patient and a birth date. Isobel Peterson."
"Do you think that's her real name?" Elena asked hopefully.
"Doubt it," Chloe said. "If I was a pregnant teenage runaway I'd use a different name."
"That's what I thought too," Jenna told the twins. "First name, maybe. But where'd she get Peterson? Classmate? Best friend? So I binged it." She typed the last name into bing and it pulled up her previous search. "I searched for all the Petersons in this area born the same year as Isobel, found 3-2 men and a woman, Trudie, who lived in Grove Hill, Virginia."
"That's not far from here," Elena said with a smile on her face.
"Well, watch this." Jenna typed in Grove Hill into the search engine and pulled up an image of two people with the names Isobel Fleming and Trudie Peterson written under it.
"Isobel," Elena said looking at the picture with a larger smile. "She was a cheerleader."
"Trudie still lives there," Jenna told them before handing them a post-it note with an address on it. "This is her address."
"What about Isobel's?" Chloe asked her.
"I couldn't find anything about her," Jenna told them and Elena looked disheartened as she sat next to her sister at the table. "Listen. There's something else. Mr. Saltzman, Ric, his wife was from around here, and her name was also Isobel."
"Mr. Saltzman was married?" I asked her before realizing my words. "Wait. Was?"
""Was," as in..."
"She died." The twins shared a look once the idea had fully set in. They wanted to find their birth parents so badly and now our mother might be dead? Chloe sighed.
"Well, at least we'd know."
Later, Elena was putting away clothes in her drawer. Stefan stood behind her as they discussed this new possible turn of events.
"Alaric's wife might have been your mother?" Stefan asked her.
"It can't be true, right?" Elena sighed. "I mean, the coincidence alone is just crazy." She turned to look at Stefan and held up the post-it note. "Chloe and I have the address for her friend Trudie."
"You wanna talk to her," Stefan said.
"I don't know. I...I-I don't know. If it's true and they are the same person, that means that my birth mother is dead, and I don't know if I could handle that," Elena told him sitting on her bed.
"Elena, did Jenna tell you anything about Alaric's wife? How she died?" Stefan asked sitting next to her.
"Just that she was killed and the case was never solved," she told him and he nodded already learning this information from Alaric and Elena gave him a surprised look. "You knew that already?"
"The night at the school when he attacked me, he told me some things about her death," Stefan finally explained to her.
"Well—" She asked pressing for details.
"No, no," he told her gently grabbing her wrists. "It's not possible. The coincidence is—it's too much. Now, listen, if you do decide to go talk to Isobel's friend, I'll go with you. Okay?"
"I just don't know what I'm gonna do yet." Elena wrapped her arms around Stefan's neck and they embraced each other lovingly.
"I should get going. I gotta go deal with Damon," he finally told her.
"How's he doing?" Elena asked worriedly.
"He's dealing in his own way."
Back at the Boarding House, Damon was feeding off one of the young sorority girls he'd brought home. The others were dancing to the song "Black Hearts (On Fire)" playing loudly in the room. All of the girls had bite marks up and down their bodies. Damon came up from the biting the girl with a grin on his face.
"How do I taste?" She asked him.
"Oh, so much better than your friends. But shh. Don't tell them. They might get jealous," he told her drunkenly. Suddenly, the light came on and Stefan entered the room making Damon groan. "No! Buzzkill Bob." Stefan turned off the music and Damon looked up at him blearily. "Greetings."
"Can we talk?" Stefan asked him.
"Yeah."
"Without the Tri-Delts."
"Anything you have to say to me, you can say in front of them. They're really good at keeping secrets." Stefan got his way and he and Damon, and a bottle of booze, moved to a private corner while the girls lounged around. "You're worried about me. That's nice. Don't be. There's no need. I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be? I spent the last 145 years with one goal: get in that tomb. I succeeded. Granted, Anna wasn't in there to be rescued, but why dwell? You know, it's so liberating not having a master plan, because I can do whatever the hell I want."
"That's kind of what I'm afraid of," Stefan told him.
"Relax. I haven't killed anyone in..." Damon sighed. "Too long."
"Those girls?" Stefan asked him.
"Will end up in their dorm with headaches, think they blacked out. Business as usual," Damon told him. "Predictable you didn't pull me over here for a pep talk. So drink up." He pushed the bottle into Stefan's chest. "Spill it, brother." Stefan took the bottle and placed it on one of the small table next to them.
"There was a woman you may have known a few years back named Isobel in North Carolina at Duke," Stefan told him trying to get him to remember Isabel without telling him what he was doing.
"You wanna discuss the women in my past right now? Seriously?" Damon asked him.
"You killed her," Stefan reminded him.
"What's your point?" Damon asked.
"I just—just wanna know if you remember anything about her," Stefan told him.
"Oh, it's like a needle in a haystack, Stefan."
"Well, think hard. It's important." Damon grabbed Stefan's shoulder and whispered in his ear.
"Nothing is important, not anymore." Damon clapped Stefan on the shoulder and pulled away, grabbing the bottle from the table. "Great chat. I have to go and exploit some women in the name of grief, which I'm sure you understand. "TTFN", said the Tri-Delt. Heh."
Matt and Caroline were on the couch in the Donovan house watching TV, Matt's arm slung over his girlfriend's shoulders. Caroline huffs and Matt mutes the TV and looked at her.
"What?" he asked her.
"This is boring. I'm bored," Caroline complained.
"Wow," he laughed.
"But we have this entire house to ourselves. I mean, it's practically a bachelor pad," she told him trying to be seductive.
"And..."
"So shouldn't we do something a little bit more bachelor-paddy?" she asked him.
"What? Something like this?" Matt lifted Caroline's chin up and kissed her before pulling away.
"Something like that." Matt turned away from his girl with a grin on his face before unmuting the TV.
"I don't know. This is a pretty good show." Caroline hit him with a shocked look on her face.
"Seriously?" She laughed before crossing her arms and giggling. Matt pushed her down on the couch and she laughed before wrapping her legs around his waist. They began to kiss passionately before he took off his shirt as she did the same.
"Oh, god." The pair looked up suddenly to see Matt's mother, Kelly, standing in the doorway, looking at them. "Not on my couch."
"Mom!" Matt said grabbing a pillow from next to Caroline and covering their bodies. "Hey." Caroline placed her hands on her face, embarrassed about being caught.
At the Mystic Grill, Alaric and Jenna were hanging up a banner advertising the Founder's Fundraiser for that night.
"I don't know. It's just weird, you know, me being raffled off like a Disney Cruise," Alaric complained to her.
"In this town, fundraising is like indentured servitude. You don't have a choice. Besides, you're a bachelor, and you're eligible, so there you go," Jenna told him before Alaric moved to her side and help her with the banner.
"Here. Let me help you with this." Alaric fixed the banner and Jenna smiled up at him. Alaric leaned in and kissed the woman who then looked windswept as he pulled away from her.
"Oh, god. I can't believe I'm gonna do this," Jenna sighed and Alaric smiled down at her.
"What?"
"I am totally going to ruin this moment, but I-I have to tell you. Elena and Chloe recently found out they were adopted, and they've been looking for their birth mother...whose name was Isobel," Jenna told him.
"Isobel? Like my wife?" He asked her and she nodded. "Isobel never had a baby. Let alone twins."
"Are you sure? Not before you were together?" Jenna asked him.
"Nope. No way." Jenna sighed before taking out her phone and pulling up a picture of Isobel and showed it to him.
"This is Elena and Chloe's birth mother." Alaric looked at the picture alarmed. He was seeing a picture of his teenage wife before she became obsessed with Mystic Falls and its crazy vampire legends.
"Ah, she, uh—she never told me. I, uh—I'm gonna go. Yeah, I'm gonna—gonna go." Alaric awkwardly walked off and Jenna sighed heavily.
Chloe stood next to Elena who was holding the post-it from that morning in her hand. They'd decided to follow it and Chloe sighed as Elena walked up to the front door and prepared to knock, but hesitated for a moment.
"If you don't knock I will," Chloe told her. Elena gave her a look before sighing and knocking on the door. After a brief moment, Elena shook her head and turned away, but Chloe grabbed her arm. "You aren't going anywhere until we find what we came here for."
"And how do we even know..." The door suddenly opened and a blonde woman answered the door. "Trudie? Tru-Trudie Peterson?"
"Yes?" She asked Elena with a smile.
"Uh, my name is Elena Gilbert and this is my twin sister, Chloe," Elena introduced. "I wanted to talk to you about Isobel Flemming." Trudie seemed to freeze and Chloe looked at the woman confused.
"Well, I haven't heard that name in years. How do you know her?" Trudie asked them.
"I think that, um, well..."
"We think she's our mother," Chloe spoke up and Elena gave her a scathing look.
"My god. You're her daughter," Trudie laughed. "I was just gonna make some tea. Would you like some?"
"Sure."
"Uh, the kitchen's this way." Trudie backed away from the door and the pair of us walked over the threshold and followed her after she shut the door.
Elena removed her jacket as Chloe just sat at the table and Trudie walked into the room from the kitchen.
"We weren't gonna come," Elena confessed to Trudie. "I didn't think we were, 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—I had your address. I'm sorry for barging in."
"It's no problem. Um, just a surprise, though," Trudie told her as they both finally sat down. "I haven't thought about Isobel in years."
"When was the last time you saw her?" Elena asked her.
"About 17 years ago, when she left to go have the two of you," she told us. "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," Trudie told us.
"Do you have any idea who my father is?" Elena asked and she nodded for a second before speaking.
"I could never get her to fess up," Trudie told us. "Anyway, she finally pulled it together, got into college on a scholarship."
"Happen to know where she went?" Chloe asked. She'd been watching every move the blonde made, and Trudie was very uncomfortable about something.
"Somewhere in North Carolina. Duke, I think. Smart girl, smart school." The kettle started whistling from the kitchen. "Let me just grab that." Trudie got up and went into the kitchen, looking back at the twins. She took out her phone and typed "They're here." before sending the message to an unknown number.
At the Donovan house, Matt was making breakfast and talking to his mom as she looked through one of the cabinets.
"So, it's been a few months. Where've you been?" Matt asked her.
"Ah, you know, here and there. Never one place too long. You know Pete," Kelly said.
"No, actually, I don't," Matt corrected. "Because you never brought him around." Kelly didn't respond to the question before walking to Matt and changing the topic.
"So blonde's the new flavor of the month, huh? So sorry I scared her off."
"She's not a flavor, Mom," Matt corrected her. "I like her."
"So she's the one?" Kelly mocked.
"No, probably not, but maybe," Matt told her as she grabbed a clean glass from the sink and opened the fridge, grabbed a bottle of vodka, and sat at the table.
"Mattie, seriously, Lezzie Forbes' daughter? Eck," Kelly made a sour face.
"Mom, seriously, knock it off," Matt ordered and she just looked at him.
"Ice, please?" Kelly held her glass out and Matt took it before opening the fridge and placing ice in it.
"So, uh, you heard from Vic?" Matt asked handing Kelly the glass and she poured some vodka into it.
"No, but don't worry. She'll come home eventually when she needs something. I played that game," Kelly told him.
"Are you playing it now?"
"No."
"Then what are you doin' home?" Matt finally asked her.
"Are you trying to say I need a reason to come back?" Kelly asked him. "Sit down. Eat with me." Matt grabbed the breakfast off the stove and served it before sitting across the table from his mother. "Tell me everything I've missed, hmm."
Stefan was milling around in the Town Square when Alaric walked up to him.
"Thanks for meeting me. Something's come up," Alaric told him.
"Jenna told you," Jenna sighed.
"Yeah."
"So it's true. Your wife Isobel was Elena and Chloe's birth mother."
"What do Elena and Chloe know?" Alaric asked him.
"About your wife?" Stefan asked, crossing his arms.
"About everything," Alaric clarified. "About you, your brother."
"They know what I am, what Damon is, and they know that you know about the vampires," Stefan told him.
"Do they know about Damon and Isobel?" Alaric asked.
"No. I couldn't tell them, not until I was sure," Stefan told him while thinking of how close Damon and Chloe had gotten in the short time they'd known each other.
"You said you'd help me," Alaric reminded him.
"I asked Damon without saying too much," Stefan told him. "He doesn't remember."
"Ask him again," Alaric insisted.
"Damon is not stable right now," Stefan warned.
"You know, he murdered my wife, or at the very least made a meal out of her," Alaric reminded him. "When has he been stable?"
"I'm telling you not to push this."
"Give me a reason not to."
"Your survival," Stefan warned. "How's that for a reason? I'll handle it, but for now, I need you to let it go."
"Is that what you'll tell Elena and Chloe? Let it go?" Alaric asked him and Stefan moved closer to him until they were just inches apart.
"Leave the twins out of this," Stefan threatened.
"I need to know what happened. I think you would, too," Alaric said. Stefan breathed out and backed away from him a bit.
"I need something more than just your wife's name. A picture, something I could show Damon," Stefan told him. Alaric retrieved a photo of Isobel from his wallet and handed it to Stefan who then took it and walked away.
Flashback
In Alaric and Isobel's apartment, Alaric woke up to the sound of typing on a keyboard. He sat up groggily to see Isobel typing away on her computer.
"Is," he groaned.
"Just a few more minutes," Isobel told him.
"Can't you, uh, can't you finish this in the morning?" he asked rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"But I like working at night," Isobel said turning back to look at him.
"Yeah, see, I like sleeping at night. With you," he told her. Isobel turned back to her computer and continued typing and Alaric sighed. "Okay, I'll bite. What is it, thesis stuff?" Isobel stopped typing and bit her bottom lip, not responding to his question. "Look, baby, I'm in a three-way here with you and your computer, the least you can do is let me know what you're up to." Isobel finally got up from her desk and walked over to their bed.
"I was doing research, and I dug up all this stuff about this small town in Virginia near where I grew up. It's isolated, out of the way, and quiet. And every now and then, people die mysteriously, and they say that it's animal attacks. Except, these bodies are drained of blood," she told him and he looked at her confused. "It's vampires. It has to be."
"Okay," Alaric said, his tone full of sarcasm. "I'll get my garlic and holy water, and then maybe, just maybe..." Isobel rolled her eyes and grabbed one of the pillows.
"No," Isobel groaned hitting him with the pillow.
"We can get some sleep. Come here."
"No." Alaric pulled her onto the bed and caressed her face lovingly.
"Look, this is why I love you because you believe in all of this stuff. So much so that you're making a degree out of it. You're like Mulder, except hotter and a girl," Alaric joked and Isobel rolled her eyes again and pushed Alaric down on the bed, moving on top of him.
"This is not a joke, Ric," Isobel told him. "You think that this is cute, but I'm gonna prove it." Isobel kissed him then scooted off the bed, heading back to her computer. "And Mulder was right in the end."
Elena, Chloe, and Trudie were looking through an old yearbook at the pictures of Isobel.
"Ah. They came to the games for football team hadn't won in years. We were the stars. Well, Izzie was. But I was a damn good backup," Trudie told us and the girls laughed.
"Heh. This is great. Thank you."
"You have no idea how much this means to us," Chloe told her.
"You're welcome," Trudie told her before looking at the full teacups on the table. "You haven't touched your tea."
"Oh. Yeah." Elena picked the cup up and took a sip. She furrowed her brow and shared a confused look with her sister. Chloe picked up her tea and took a good whiff. "What is this?"
"Oh, it's just some herbal mixture," Trudie told her.
"It's vervain," Chloe said, but Trudie didn't say anything. Chloe put the cup back down. "You know, don't you?"
"Know what?" Trudie asked, eyes wide.
"You didn't invite us in, and you're serving vervain tea," You know." Trudie quickly stood up and stared at the girls.
"I think that you should probably leave." Elena placed her cup down and they stared up at the woman in shock.
"What do you know?" Chloe asked her. "How do you know about vampires?"
"What are you not telling us?"
"Please leave. Now!" The pair quickly got up and left the house.
"What the hell was that?" Chloe asked as they walked back to the car. Elena grabbed her keys from her purse but paused when she saw a man standing in the middle of the road. She patted Chloe's arm and the blue-eyed twin turned to look at him. They stared until Elena grabbed her sister's arm and they both got in the car and drove back home. Chloe turned and watched the man walk down the street towards Trudie's home.
At the Mystic Grill, Alaric was sitting at the bar alone when Damon showed up and sat next to him.
"Bourbon." The bartender poured the bourbon into a glass and pushed it to Damon. "Behold the teacher. Don't you have some papers to grade?"
"It's, uh, more fun with a buzz," Alaric told him.
"Well, most things in life are," Damon said. "Sober's depressing."
"You don't strike me as somebody who gets depressed," Alaric chided.
"You say that like you know me," Damon noted.
"Nope. Just a hunch." Damon and Alaric exchanged a long look before Alaric finished his drink and placed it down on the bar. "You have a good afternoon."
"Not likely." Alaric got up and left Damon alone with his new thoughts. Not long after his departure, Liz walked up to the bar and stood next to Damon.
"Daytime Drinking, huh?" She asked him.
"It's all the rage," Damon joked.
"Listen, I need a favor."
"You ever been in love?" he suddenly asked her and she looked at him confused.
"Excuse me?" she asked confused.
"Have you ever been so bent on someone, just to have your heart ripped out by them?" he asked her.
"You forget I was married," she reminded him.
"Right. Gay husband," he remembered before gesturing to the barman. "She'll have what I'm having." The barman poured another bourbon as Damon patted the seat next to him. "Sit down." Sheriff Forbes sat next to Damon and took the glass.
"There's a fundraiser here tonight that the Founder's Council is throwing. The town's most eligible bachelors get raffled off for dates, and, well, we're short a bachelor," she said, finally getting to her request.
"Is this what you do when there's no, um..." he looked around before lowering his voice. "Vampires? Organize bachelor raffles?" They both laughed.
"Oh, trust me. At this point, I miss the vampires," she told him. "Look, you're a hero to this town, Damon. I know most people don't know it, but you are, and you're single and a catch. Oh, come on, help me out. Carol Lockwood won't let me live it down if I come up empty-handed."
"You know, a room full of women clamoring to win a date with me. Sounds tasty," he told her with a double meaning.
"Thank you," she laughed, relieved.
"One thing. Can you get information on someone for me?" Damon asked her. "Alaric Saltzman, the history teacher. There's just something a little off about him, and I just - I just wanna make sure that the high school did their homework on this guy."
"You got it," Sheriff Forbes told him rising from her seat.
"Thanks." Sheriff Forbes nodded before departing as Damon took a swig from his glass of bourbon.
Back at Trudie's home, she went to answer the door after the doorbell rang. The man that was staring at the twins as they'd left was standing on the front porch.
"May I help you?" Trudie asked him confused.
"Thank you for the text." Trudie looked up at him fearfully and surprised.
"You're welcome. I didn't tell them anything. I-I kept my promise," she told him.
"Good."
"The girls, though,they-they knew something," Trudie informed.
"That won't be a problem," he told her. "They won't get any closer to the truth."
"Good. So I'm done?" Trudie asked him.
"Yes. You're done." Trudie started to close the door, but the man grabbed a hold of it and started pushing it back making the woman struggle to shut it.
"No, I won't invite you in! You can't come in!" She yelled at him.
"I'm not a vampire, so, yes, I can." He flung the door open, forcefully, causing Trudie to land on the stairs as he walked into the house.
"I don't understand. I did what you told me. I did my part!"
"And now I have to do mine," he told her. She yelled and started running up the stairs with him pursuing her. He grabbed her by her hair and threw her down the stairs. She tumbled to the bottom floor and became still. A pool of blood started soaking into the rug proving her death. The man descended the stairs and stepped over her body, leaving her house.
In the Mystic Falls Town Square, Harper was walking and looking around at the world around him feeling overwhelmed by all the changes. He looked over at a bench where a woman was sitting. The pair exchanged long looks as if they'd known each other before. She nodded before Harper walked away.
At the Salvatore Boarding House, the Gilbert twins entered Stefan's room looking for Elena's boyfriend.
"Stefan.," Elena called out.
"Better. Me." The pair turned to see Damon walking out of the bathroom without a shirt on.
"You look, um..." Elena stumbled for a word.
"Dashing? Gorgeous? Irresistible?" Damon supplied walking across the room, closing the space between him and Chloe.
"Among those fabulous descriptions," Chloe said smirking up at him. "Drunk, is another word I'd use."
"No reason why," he said and she raised an eyebrow at him.
"I'm going to go find Stefan," Elena told the pair obviously not listening to her.
"Do you know that I am one of Mystic Falls' most eligible bachelors?" Damon asked the blue-eyed brunette.
"Really?"
"Yep."
"Who knew you could be so desirable?"
"I know." He grabbed a shirt and attempted to put it on. "What can I do for you? I'm a barrel of favors today. It's my newfound purpose—how can I help people?"
"Quite the purpose," Chloe said. "Elena and I are meeting up with Stefan. We're all going to the fundraiser together." Damon pretended that he was too drunk to button up his shirt so he could get Chloe close to him.
"Help a guy out, will you? Can't get this," he told her and she laughed at him before walking up to him. She grabbed the front of his shirt and began to button it up while trying to ignore the vampire in front of her.
"So Elena and I found out who our birth mother is," Chloe said trying to distract herself and include him in her non-vampire life. Was it bad that she wanted more with him, but didn't want to manipulate it?
"Eccch. Who cares?" he asked her and she did her best to hide the hurt. "She left you. She sucks." They exchanged looks before he looked over her shoulder. "Stefan. Elena."
"About time she found you," Chloe said going to join the pair. Damon started to put his jacket on.
"Sorry, didn't realize we were on a clock," Stefan joked.
"Not all of us have the luxury of time," Chloe said with a teasing note in her voice and a small smile on her face.
"Uhh," Damon groaned causing the trio to turn back and look at him. "I need a bigger jacket. Wow. You know, an occasional sorority girl might, um, you know, help fill you out a little bit." Damon removed the jacket and threw it onto Stefan's bed before walking out of the room.
"He's fine," Chloe told the pair.
"He's Damon," Stefan corrected.
"Maybe this heartache will be good for him. It'll remind him that he has one, even if it doesn't beat," Elena said and Chloe rolled her eyes.
"Won't hold my breath." Elena smiled and laughed before looking down at her feet.
"So we went to see Trudie Peterson," she told him and his face became stony. "I know. I'm sorry. I didn't plan it."
"How was it?" He asked.
"She has vervain and didn't invite us into the house," Chloe told him.
"She knows about vampire stuff, and it can't be a coincidence," Elena added.
"It isn't. This is Alaric's wife." Stefan took out the picture of Isobel that Alaric had given him and handed it to the twins.
"This is her. Which means she's dead," Chloe said sitting on the bed. She hadn't realized until that moment that'd she'd been anxious yet excited to meet her birth mother. "He gave this to you?"
"Everything he knows about vampires, he learned from her," Stefan told them while debating to tell them the rest of the story. "He believes that she was killed by one."
"Oh, my god," Elena sighed.
"Listen, Elena, Chloe, there's a lot about Isobel that Alaric can tell you, but I need you to hold off a little while before you talk to him," Stefan requested and Chloe looked at him angrily and confused.
"Why?" Elena asked.
"This is our mother," Chloe said. We have every right to ask him as many questions as we want."
"I know that it's a lot to ask of you, but will you do that for me?" Stefan asked. Chloe sighed as Elena nodded. Stefan and Elena stared at the blue-eyed twin before she finally caved.
"Fine, but I don't like it."
At the Mystic Grill, Carol was on the stage introducing the Fundraiser into the microphone.
"Tickets for the raffle are now on sale. All proceeds benefit the annual Founder's Day celebration," she informed them before putting her microphone down. In another part of the Grill, Jenna walked up to Alaric who was drinking something from the bar.
"That's a good look for you," Jenna told him meaning his attire.
"What? Embarrassed and uncomfortable?" He joked.
"Yep. That's- that's the one," she laughed.
"Hey, look, um, I'm, uh, sorry about earlier. It was just kind of a-a shock," Alaric told her.
"No, I'm sorry for dropping it on you, but I felt like you should know," she said.
"No, I get it."
"At some point, maybe you and the girls could talk. I'm sure they'd like to hear about Isobel, what she was like," Jenna suggested.
"Yeah." Alaric agreed.
"Uh...Or not. No pressure."
"I don't know if that's a-a great idea." Alaric cleared his throat. "At least not—not for a while." Jenna nodded, understandingly.
After seeing the twins off, Stefan was looking around the Boarding House. He found him putting on a bigger jacket.
"Where'd Chloe and your girlfriend go?" Damon asked him.
"They're on their way to the Grill. I, uh, wanted to talk to you," Stefan said before pulling out the picture of Isobel and handing it to him. Damon looked at it with his usual smugness, all traces of his drinking gone. "This is the woman, Isobel, from North Carolina. Remember her now?"
"Who wants to know?" Damon asked.
"I do."
"Who else wants to know?"
"Did you kill her?" Stefan asked avoiding his question.
"Sorry. Don't know her," Damon said as he walked passed his baby brother. "Hey, are you coming? The Real Housewives of Mystic Falls await."
Back at the Mystic Grill, Chloe, Caroline, Elena, and Matt were milling around at the front, Caroline manning the tickets and money.
"He's already been hit on, like, 35 times. He's total cougar bait," Caroline informed the twins while teasing her boyfriend.
"Impressive," Elena teased.
"More like embarrassing," Matt corrected and the three girls laughed at him as his mother walked into the Grill.
"Hi, Mrs. Donovan," Caroline greeted, but Kelly just glanced at her with distaste before smiling at the twins.
"Elena, Chloe."
"Hi, Kelly."
"I didn't know you were back in town," Chloe said as the trio hugged each other.
"Long time, no see," Kelly said as they separated.
"How are you doing?" Elena asked her.
"Oh, same old. Oh. Matty tells me you broke his heart," Kelly pouted at the brunette.
"Mom," Matt complained.
"Just kidding. Calm down," she told him. "He found his rebound girl." She glanced at Caroline from the corner of her eyes and Chloe placed a comforting hand on Caroline's arm. "Oh. Here you go, sweetheart. However many that'll buy." Kelly extracted some money from her purse and handed it to Caroline, who took it with a small smile. "I just hope I don't get Bachelor 3. I dated him in high school. Not impressive. In any way." Matt shook his head in embarrassment as Caroline handed his mother her tickets. "Very exciting." Kelly walked into the Grill and the Chloe turned to see Alari talking to some women. They stared at each other and, just as she was about to walk to him, he walked off.
In a secluded part of the Grill, Damon and Carol were talking about his plans for his date.
"I've got the big date planned. It's a romantic dinner, secluded spot somewhere woodsy," he told her.
"You're making me think I should buy a ticket."
"Well, you are in charge. You could always rig it," he told her with a sly smirk and she smiled flirtatiously at him before Sheriff Forbes walked into the Grill. "Mmm. Pardon me." Damon rubbed her arm and walked to Sheriff Forbes. The pair retreated into a corner.
"I ran the check on the history teacher. You want this before or after your big debut?" She asked him.
"How's it look?" He asked her and she handed him the folder and he began looking through it.
"He checks out. Couple of speeding tickets. It's a rough story, though. Turns out his wife went missing a few years back in North Carolina."
"North Carolina? She have a name?" Damon asked putting some of the pieces together.
"Yeah. Isobel." Sheriff Forbes flipped to a page containing a picture of Isobel's ID and Damon stared at it.
"Isobel." Damon looked out into the Grill at Alaric, who was talking with Jenna, and got a very Damon-ish look on his face.
Stefan walked into the Grill as Carol introduced the third bachelor.
"And what do you do, Bachelor Number 3?"
"Yeah, I'm a plumber," he told her.
"Well, isn't that wonderful? We could always use more plumbers. Moving on," She said moving to Alaric. "Number 4, "Alaric Saltzman." Wow. That's quite a mouthful. What do you do, Alaric?" Chloe and Elena smiled at Jenna who blushed and looked down at the table before looking back up at him.
"I'm a teacher at Mystic Falls High."
"Oh, beauty and brains, ladies. This one's a keeper. What do you teach?"
"History."
"History. Oh, well, give us a fun fact about Mystic Falls, something crazy," Carol said and Alaric looked over at Damon who placed his hand up to his ear, sarcastically, anticipating a response. Chloe, seeing all this, looked between the two confused.
"Uh, well..." After a silent moment, Carol pulled the mic away from the teacher.
"He's probably saving the best stories for his date," She said before moving to Damon. "And last, but not least, Damon Salvatore. We don't have much on you." Stefan stopped in the middle of the room and looked at Elena. Elena smiled at him and waved from her table. He waved back before they both looked back at the stage.
"Well, I'm tough to fit on a card," Damon told Carol and Chloe wanted to laugh at that. If they only knew.
"Do you have any hobbies, like to travel?" Carol asked him.
"Oh, yeah. L.A., New York. Couple of years ago, I was in North Carolina. Near the Duke campus, actually. I think—I think Alaric went to school there. Didn't you, Ric?" Damon asked him and the pair stared at each other. "Yeah, 'cause I- I know your wife did." Chloe stopped breathing, not wanting to hear what Damon was about to say. Stefan, becoming alert to what this news may do to the twins, started making his way to the trio. "I had a drink with her once. She was—she was a great girl. I ever tell you that? Cause she was - Delicious. Mmm! Mmm mmm mmm." Chloe felt her heart plummet as her eyes filled with tears. Elena, who'd been smiling, felt her mouth drop open in shock. Jenna looked at the hurt pair in confusion.
"Are you okay?" she asked them.
"I just need some air." Elena quickly got up and pulled her sister outside with her, leaving Stefan to follow in their wake.
Outside, Elena paced around as Chloe leaned on the building when Stefan exited the Grill and approached her.
"Elena," Stefan started, but Elena cut him off.
"He killed her?" Elena asked, knowing the answer. "Damon was the vampire that killed her?"
"I don't know what happened. Alaric said that they never found the body," Stefan told her.
"Oh, my god. Stefan."
"I know. I'm sorry," Stefan apologized. "I wanted to tell you. But I just—I wanted to know more."
"To know more?" Chloe finally chimed in. "You mean you wanted to make sure your brother was in the clear for killing our mother." Stefan wanted to say something, but nothing popped into his mind to say.
"I was feeling sorry for him, hoping that this whole Anna thing would change him. I'm so stupid," Elena sighed.
"He doesn't know about the connection to you," Stefan told Chloe before looking at his girl. "Either of you. I thought about confronting him, but he's already so on edge."
"Why are you protecting him?" Chloe asked angrily.
"Because Elena's not the only one hoping that he might actually change," Stefan told her and she scoffed before looking at the wall. Elena and Stefan looked at each other. Chloe looked behind the pair and stared confused at the very familiar man staring at them.
"Elena. Stefan." The couple followed her gaze and Elena stared at him confused.
"That man. We saw that man outside of Trudie's."
"Get back inside. Come on." Stefan quickly ushered the twins back inside the Grill and followed them in.
Inside the Grill, Carol was pulling out a raffle ticket from the large bowl next to her.
"And bachelor number 3 goes to 37458," she read off.
"That's me." The crowd parted as Kelly walked towards Carol, her hand with the ticket in the air.
"Ah. Kelly Donovan. Lovely." Kelly took the ticket from Carol as she passed her and made her way to Caroline. "You and the plumber should have so much fun."
"Congratulations, Mrs. Donovan," Caroline said with a large smile on her face.
"Okay, just stop," Kelly ordered her. "Stop trying so hard. This thing you're doing, this nice thing, it's fake. Like you. Like your mom. And for some reason, Matt fell for it, but that doesn't mean that I will. I don't like you, okay? So tell plumber boy I'll be at the bar."
"Okay." Kelly walked off ignoring Caroline's hurt look from her presumptions.
Chloe walked ahead of her sister and Stefan, still shocked by the news. As she continued walking she didn't really pay attention to where she was going and ran into the one person she didn't want to see.
"Whoa. Easy there. Buy a ticket like everyone else," he joked with her and that seemed to just set her off.
"Did you enjoy doing that to him?" Chloe asked him. "Rubbing it in that you killed her?"
"What?" Damon asked confused.
"You know I was actually beginning to..." Chloe scoffed as Stefan and Elena walked up behind Damon.
"Chloe," Stefan said, shaking his head at the angry teen. Damon looked between his brother at the girl in front of him.
"Am I missing something here?" Damon asked the trio.
"You remember my mom? The one who gave me up?" She asked him.
"Mm-hm," he confirmed smiling down at her.
"Did I ever tell you her name?" she asked him but didn't bother waiting for a response. "Her name was Isobel Fleming. She went to Duke and married Alaric Saltzman." All the pieces finally fell into place and Damon's face faltered. "Go ahead. Reminisce. I'm listening." After a moment of silence between the two, Chloe walked past Damon and towards Jenna.
Once they'd grabbed their jackets, the twins and Stefan left the Grill.
"Come on. Let's get you home," Stefan said.
"Then what?" Chloe asked him. "Then we forget everything we've heard?" Elena stopped the conversation when she stopped in front of them. Chloe and Stefan followed her gaze to see the man from before staring at them. Stefan put himself in front of the twins protectively.
"I have a message for you," he told them.
"What?" Elena asked him.
"Who are you?" Stefan asked.
"Stop looking."
"Stop looking for what?"
"She doesn't want to know you," the man said. "She doesn't want to talk to you."
"Isobel?" Elena gasped.
"Which means she didn't stay dead," Chloe said.
"You need to stop looking. Do you understand?" he asked.
"She's alive? Does that mean she's a-"
"What else could it mean?" Chloe asked her sister as she inched forward, but Stefan kept her back.
"He's under compulsion," Stefan complained.
"Do you understand?" he asked.
"Yes. I do." Elena looked at her sister.
"Message received."
"Good." The man looked down the street before looking at the trio. "I'm done now." The man stepped back into the road and a large truck blared its horn as it ran him over. Shocked, the twins ducked behind Stefan. The trio moved to the man's remains as people around them were yelling. Stefan knelt down and looked at him, but Elena noticed a phone, that must have fallen out of his pocket and picked it up.
"Come on," Stefan said grabbing the girls' arms and pulling them with him. "Let's get out of here. Come on." Elena pocketed the phone as Stefan dragged her off to her car.
Inside, Carol held up another ticket and read the number.
"37649." Many of the women in the crowd made disappointed sounds before Jenna raised her hand.
"That's me." Alaric and Jenna smiled at her.
"Congratulations." Jenna walked up to Carol and took her ticket. "And Bachelor Number 5, Damon Salvatore." Carol pulled out another ticket and read it off. "37552." Alaric walked over to Jenna, who handed her ticket to Caroline. "Would you look at that? 37552. What are the chances? Me." Carol looked around for Damon and her smile fell when she couldn't find him. "Where'd he go?" Alaric joined her in looking for Damon before turning to Jenna.
"I'll call you later."
Flashback
In Alaric's and Isobel's apartment, Alaric was sitting on the edge of the bed as Isobel talked to him and paced across the floor.
"I think it's time to let this vampire crap go," Alarc told her. "I mean, the research, the trips, it's become an obsession."
"Well, this is important to me, Ric," she told him.
"Why? Why is it so important? Explain it to me. I mean, make me understand," Alaric told her, but she said nothing and he sighed. "I mean, what's the point of this? You don't want kids. You're barely ever home. I just want us to be normal people."
"Maybe I don't want to. Maybe I want more," she told him.
At the Donovan House, Matt guided an obviously intoxicated Kelly into the house.
"Here we go. Home, sweet home," Matt told her.
"Wait," Kelly said looking around her home. "Why—why are we back here? I wasn't ready to leave."
"Yeah, you were, mom." Matt helped his mom sit down on the sofa before sitting beside her.
"You're the best, Matty."
"I know," Matt said having heard the same thing from her and Vicky multiple times.
"I'm-I'm sorry...I was gone so long."
"Why are you really home, mom?" he finally asked her.
"It's Pete," Kelly told him. "He's gone, and it's all my fault. I did it. I always do it."
"No, you didn't, mom. It's not your fault," Matt tried to comfort her.
"You're all I have left. Please don't leave me," Kelly begged with tears in her voice.
"I'm not going anywhere." Kelly touched Matt's face and smiled at him. She then laid her head on a throw pillow and Matt covered her with a blanket.
At the Boarding House, Damon was preparing to make a drink when Alaric quietly entered the room with a stake in his hand.
"Are you really this stupid?" Damon asked as he finished pouring his drink and turned to look at Alaric. "Guess so." Damon took a drink, put his glass down, and vamp-ran at Alaric, throwing him across the room. Alaric landed on the floor, heavily, but quickly got back up, ready to attack. "You gonna put down the stake?" Alaric remained in an attacking stance. "Wow. That's courage." Damon walked towards Alaric.
"Where's Isobel? What have you done to my wife?" Alaric asked him.
"You want me to tell you I killed her?" Damon asked him. "Would that make you happy? Because I think you know what happened."
"I saw you feeding on her," Alaric told him.
"Yeah, I did, and I wasn't lying. She was delicious," Damon told him. Alaric rushed at Damon, but Damon hit him in the stomach and Alaric keeled over galling back onto the floor. "Oh, come on. What do you think happened? Not an inkling? Never considered the possibility?" Alaric looked up at him. "I turned her."
"Why?"
"She came to me," Damon told him. "All pathetic, looking for vampires. There was something about her, something I liked. There was something special."
"You turned her because you liked her?" Alaric asked him confused.
"No, I slept with her because I liked her," Damon told him. "I turned her because she begged me to. Yeah. But you knew that, too, didn't you? Hmm. I guess she wasn't happy at home, wasn't happy with life in general, wasn't happy with you." Alaric rushed at Damon again, but Damon grabbed the stake from Alaric's hands and stabbed him in the chest, puncturing his lung making him yell in pain. "Ah, this is a shame. We're kindred spirits, abandoned by the women we love. Unrequited love sucks." Damon removed the stake from Alaric's chest and the man wheezed. "Sounds like I got a lung. Which means I get to sit here and watch you die." Damon tossed Alaric to the floor and the human gasped for air as he placed his hands over his wound. Damon threw the stake down, grabbed his drink, and sat down on the sofa as he watched Alaric took one last breath before he died.
An hour later, Damon took a swig from his glass as he looked at Alaric's dead body. Stefan walked in the room and looked at Alaric on the ground. He rushed over to the body and knelt down next to it, checking for a pulse.
"What happened? What did you do?" Stefan asked him.
"Do what?" Damon asked him. "He attacked me." Stefan sat up and look at Damon
"Damon."
"All I did was tell him the truth. His wife didn't want him anymore. It's not my fault he couldn't handle it," Damon said.
"Like you've been handling Anna?" Stefan asked him.
"I'm handling it fine. You know what? Isobel came to me. She found me. And if she's related to Chloe, that means she's related to Anna. Maybe Anna sent her to me," Damon smirked at his baby brother.
"Stop it. You don't have to keep looking," Stefan told him.
"Can't be a coincidence Isobel sought me out. Uh-uh. Can't." Damon said before pointing to Alaric. "I'm assuming you'll take care of this." Damon got up and left the room. Stefan, exhausted by Damon's actions, sat down next to Alaric's body. Suddenly, Stefan saw Alaric's fingers move. He furrowed his brow and leaned over Alaric's body. Suddenly, Alaric gasped back to life, panting heavily. Alaric sat up, confused.
"What happened? What's going on?" Alaric asked and Stefan stared at the history teacher confused.
"You were just...Did Damon turn you?"
"No. I - I went for him and then he, uh- he stabbed me," Alaric said remembering.
"No, no, no. You must have vampire blood in your system. Somebody slipped it to you," Stefan told him as Alaric flexed his fingers.
"No. It's, uh, it's something else."
"Then how?" Stefan asked.
"I, uh..." Alaric looked down at the ring on his hand. "Isobel."
Flashback
Alaric and Isobel were in bed in their apartment with Alaric holding a small box in his hand.
"Surprise gifts aren't fair. I always feel bad for not getting you something," Alaric confessed.
"Just open it." He did as she said and laughed.
"Oh, that's a giant piece of jewelry." He took out the ring and examined it.
"I know. It's ridiculous. Just tell people it's a family heirloom. Nobody questions that," she told him.
"Where'd you get this?" he asked curiously.
"If I told you, you'd laugh at me. But promise me that you'll always wear it. It'll protect you from all the things that go bump in the night," Isobel said.
"A ring to ward off the demons, eh?" Alaric asked him.
"Consider it a- a token of my love, my affection, and if nothing else, an apology for being so crazy."
"Well, you were definitely crazy." Alaric placed the ring on his finger.
"I'm selfish, and I'm obsessed, and I'm a horrible wife. But you love me anyway."
"Yes, I do."
Alaric continued to fidget with the ring and looked up at Stefan.
"This ring protected me," Alaric told him.
"That's impossible."
"I know."
Elena was sitting in her bed when she picked up a picture and it showed her with her parents. She looked at it for a moment then placed it down on her lap. She grabbed the cell phone that she took from the man that had been run over. Elena opened the phone and found the last number that was dialed. Before she had a chance to change her mind, Elena called the number and placed the phone to her ear. After a few rings, someone picked up on the other end.
"Was there a problem? Did you find her? What's going on?" a woman asked.
"Isobel?" Elena asked. Isobel hung up without another word and Elena shut the phone, her eyes full of tears.
Harper was walking down a path through the woods. He approached a house and knocked on the door. The woman that Harper had seen in the Town Square earlier in the day answered the door.
"Pearl, it's Harper," the woman called out. Pearl and Anna walked to the front door and the woman went back into the house.
"I'm glad you found us. Ms. Gibbons, this gentleman is a friend of mine." Miss Gibbons came up from behind Pearl and smiled at Harper. "May he come in?"
"Any friend of Pearl's is a friend of mine. Please do. Come in." Harper entered the house and walked off with Pearl and Miss Gibbons.
"Annabelle, close the door, please." Anna looked out into the woods as she shut the door.