Chapter 4

Elena's POV

Damon's alive.

That is all I can process after seeing him. Months I've spent looking for a way to bring him back. I've searched for answers everywhere. I even went to Klaus and Elijah who told me to give up and it wasn't possible for anyone to survive that or even come back from it if they did survive. I never gave up though. I knew that he was alive somewhere in this world or on the other side. So that's why I couldn't give up. I had to reverse what was done in the graveyard but what I never expected was for him to have been here all along.

I've watched him all afternoon with his new family. He has everything he's ever wanted. Love, family...with none of the supernatural monsters threatening it. Hell he has what probably all of us want. Why would he want to even remember a life where it was so different? I know I wouldn't but there was one thing I couldn't shake off. When I shook his hand I saw it in his eyes. He saw the memory that I was thinking about and the way he looked at me was almost like he wanted to remember more.

That's when I had to leave that party. I appreciated Ana for inviting Stefan and I and wanting to get to know us since there was obviously some family connection somewhere but I couldn't stay. I found Stefan and told him that I couldn't stay. He nodded and asked me to at least stay close so he would know I was safe. He was being ridiculous, ever since the other side collapsed he's been convinced something or someone was after me. Yet I nodded my head just to appease him.

I walked down the driveway at vampire speed and then started walking the sidewalks like a normal human, no reason to cause a panic here in this safe little area of town. After wrestling with my thoughts and going back and forth of whether or not to give Damon a push at remembering I finally decided to back off and let him be happy. I love Damon and I want forever with him but more so I want him happy. So I'll let him go.

I sigh but it sounds more like a growl as I toss a rock across the street. Only because I know that it's not going to happen. I normally don't like to judge people but Mia is...different. Something about her gave me chills and deep down I knew something was different about her. She was putting on a show but who the hell for? What's more weird is she looks like Ric. She also has some of the same features that Ana and I share, even some of Katherine's features if you really look at her. There was always a way to tell us all apart Katherine had the darkest hair of us all. My nose was shaped a little different. And...well Ana has blue eyes so that's obvious. Mia though...it was impossible that she could share the features of all three of us. Isobel would have had to be her mother and she was turned into a vampire before Mia would have even been born. I know I'm probably making something out of nothing just so I have a reason to be in Damon's life so I put the thoughts of Mia having an ulterior motive out of my mind.

The ding from my cell phone brings me out of my thoughts and I unlock it only to see a text from Stefan.

Are you coming back?

I laugh and shove the phone back in my pocket without answering him. He'll get that no I'm not coming back. Yet it was a loaded question in itself. Part of me wants to go back...not to the party though just back in time. No. No. I will honor my decision and leave Damon to be happy here for the rest of his days with the Grey family. Another part of me though, the selfish part, wants to go back to the party and take Damon, compel everyone to forget him, and go back to Mystic Falls so I can be happy. I can't do that though...not to Damon.

I hear a car behind me but it's not the convertible so it's not Stefan. I just ignore it and keep running through all the thoughts that keep playing like a loop inside my head.

"Ana?"

I look up and see that the driver has stopped. "Uh no sorry. I'm not Ana."

He nods. "Then you must be Elena." I look at him questioningly. Before I can say anything though he unlocks his doors and says "I'm Dr Flynn. Why don't you hop in and we can talk?"

Flynn? Suddenly all of Stefan's paranoia hits me. I don't know that name. I shake my head and step back. "No thanks. I really don't need a ride plus with the stranger danger thing sorry."

I walk away from him but he doesn't move. When I'm almost all the way down the street I hear him speak again.

"I understand. I just wanted to meet the girl Damon has spoken of. I'm also positive if I caused you any harm you'd end me before I even could correct?"

I walk back to his car shocked. "How do you know what I am? Who the hell are you?"

"Dr Flynn. And I know only what Damon has told me."

Does that mean that Damon remembers? "What exactly has he told you?"

"Get in and we'll talk. I'm already late and the Grey's are expecting me."

I take another moment to think it over then my curiosity wins out. I have to know if Damon remembers. On they way back to the Grey's John, Dr Flynn, tells me everything. The dreams, the fact that he knows my name and Stefan's because he hypnotized Damon once and he did remember most of the people but not the events and the fact that Damon doesn't remember anything from the hypnosis and John still doesn't know why. I make a mental note to research parallel universes and to call Elijah to see if he's even heard of anything like this but I'm guessing he hasn't since he didn't tell me about it when I saw him. John tells me how he came to see Damon as a patient. He had seen all the Grey kids and Christian referred Damon when he told him about the dreams. What really stuck out though was Mia.

"You said Mia had a hard time being adopted. Can I ask why?"

He shrugs. "Everyone wants to know where they come from. I thought she'd get better when she met her birth mother but it got complicated to say the least. Mia changed after that. She kept contact with her but the woman was always disappearing and coming back."

"How'd she change?"

"Her temper comes and goes more often. She's secretive where as she never as before. She won't tell me about Isobel even though I know they still get together in person to this day."

I stop listening after that. Isobel. Am I hearing things? I'm vaguely aware I'm now compelling John for information. The scary thing is the time line adds up. Could Isobel have faked her death again? If so, what is she up to with this family? I pull out my phone and send Stefan a reply to his earlier message.

Coming back. Watch Mia close. Will explain later.

I can feel myself getting mad. If Isobel is that involved with Mia what else has she got this family to do?