A/N: As promised, a double post. Any questions that you may still have brought on by chapter 13 may be answered in this chapter if they're weren't already in 14. If not, be patient as they will be answered in future chapters. Don't be afraid to post questions in reviews or PM me and I'll do my best to get anything cleared up if it's still unclear or won't be elaborated on till further chapters.

Enjoy chapter 15!

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Chapter 15: Second Chances

Katherine stood in shock as she stared at Nadia. Never had she thought that the reason why she had taken to Nadia so quickly was because she was her daughter. Although now that she thought about it she could see it. Nadia looked so much like her, but she could also see some of her father in her too. Well, shit. She hadn't thought of him in centuries, well no need dragging up old ghosts. Though that seemed to be all that was going on lately, it was just Katherine's turn now.

"Mother? No way!" Jeremy shouted in shock. "Hey, which one of you is younger?" he laughed, holding his side as he laughed hysterically. Apparently, no one else thought it was very funny as the hunter was the only one laughing. Katherine may have been older by years, but at age turned, well Nadia looked like she could be Katherine's older sister and not her daughter.

"I am." Nadia and Katherine said in unison while everyone glared at Jeremy. Both Elena and Bonnie had yelled at him before dragging him off inside before someone attempted to kill the hunter.

"Okay, ah, maybe we should give these two a moment?" Stefan suggested, wanting to avoid this situation entirely.

"Yeah, because these burgers are done." Matt said as he placed the cooked burgers on a tray and quickly moved inside. He sure as hell wasn't sticking around for this conversation.

"Good idea." Caroline agreed as she gathered up the condiments. "Stefan, a little help." She said and together, they got everything off the table and back into the kitchen.

"Is this a good idea?" Damon whispered as he looked at Sara, uncertainty written across his face. What exactly had happened between Sara and this woman? He knew his love had a soft spot for family, but this woman was part of the group of people that wanted his brother for some insane plan concerning world domination or something or other.

"It is, because I have a plan." She grinned before taking Damon's hand. "C'mon." she said as she tugged on his arm, leading him towards the house. "I'm starving."

Damon didn't like this idea, but hearing his girlfriend's stomach growl reminded him that she had yet to eat anything today and it was almost four in the afternoon. "Alright." He sighed before a smile appeared on his lips. "Let's go eat." He said as he allowed Sara to pull him into the house, giving Katherine and Nadia a moment alone.

The moment the kitchen door clicked shut and everyone was begging Sara for more details did the look of shock on Katherine's face turn into a glare. "Are you kidding me?!" she hissed. "What the hell were you thinking? Taking the Striga, she could've killed you!"

Nadia lifted an eyebrow. "I'm surprised you care." She knew better than to hope that Katherine was actually concerned for her well-being. She just wanted to save her own skin and Nadia was one with the plan to do so.

"Well, you are my daughter, aren't you?" Katherine retorted with an eye roll as she flipped her hair over her shoulder.

"Yes, I am. Like I said the other day, I've been looking for you for a very long time."

"Speaking of which, why didn't you tell me who you were when we first met? Or in your letter?" Katherine demanded with her hands on her hips, this was kind of important news. She never imagined that she would ever meet her daughter after she had passed the first 70 years of Nadia's life. She had looked everywhere for her, but her search had been for nothing seeing as her father had done an excellent job at keeping her newborn daughter away from her.

Nadia rolled her eyes. "I tried, but before I could tell you, you demanded that I tell you about the Striga instead." She hissed. "And besides, would you have really agreed to meet someone who was claiming to have answers concerning the Travelers and who just so happened to be claiming to be your daughter?" Nadia knew better than to leave that piece of information down on the paper she had snuck into the boarding house a few days ago.

"Speaking of the Striga, how is it that you're still alive? Everyone that's even managed to capture her has ended up dead." Katherine was curious as to why the Striga had spared her daughter. She refused to even possibly believe that it was because the immortal bitch actually had a heart.

A devilish grin appeared on Nadia's lips. "We made a deal. I would tell her all I knew about this plan concerning the Travelers and the Doppelgangers in exchange for my life. As a bonus, I would act as a spy, relaying any new information and warnings about upcoming attacks in return for protection and being introduced to you."

"You what?!" Katherine hissed. How could she do that?! Give away their plans, there really was no hope now that she… wait a minute. Nadia said about what the Travelers wanted with the doppelgangers, not about what they wanted with the Striga. "Does this mean that I can assume that Sara knows nothing about our plans?" she asked as she rubbed her temples. She could feel the beginnings of a migraine starting to form. She needed a drink.

"Rest assured, the Striga knows nothing because I told her I knew nothing. She thinks the only reason I was with the Travelers was to find you, nothing more." Nadia grinned before she frowned. "However, I'm not so sure we still have a plan. That chalice was a key part in the ceremony for tying Pelicarpo's soul to Stefan's. I had planned on doing something similar with yours in order to place you in the Striga's body."

"Oh, that's just fucking great!" Katherine growled as she threw her hands up in the air. "What are we going to do now?" she asked as she began to pace.

"Relax." Nadia hissed as she looked back at the house. So far, it seemed that no one inside had overheard them, they were all too preoccupied with interrogating the Striga. "Another group of Travelers is arriving tonight. I'll see what I can come with in regards to a new plan. With the chalice gone, He will have had to come up with a new plan." That was, if the chalice had been as important as they were all lead to believe. She also still had to inform him of the chalice's destruction. It was just such a shame that her cell phone was now at the bottom of the quarry.

"Then what are you waiting for, go! Figure it out!" Katherine snapped, effectively dismissing the woman. Nadia nodded and was gone in a flash as Katherine made her way inside the boarding house.

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While Katherine and Nadia talked outside, everyone was currently grilling Sara in the kitchen for details on what had happened over the course of the last couple of hours.

"So, c'mon Sara. Tell us what happened already." Jeremy whined as he practically jumped up and down besides Sara's chair, begging the Striga for details. He reminded Sara of an impatient child, grabbing onto its mother's skirts begging for attention.

"Jeremy, chill." Stefan said as he placed a hand on the young hunter's shoulder. "Give her some room to breathe, to eat." he scolded as Damon sat a plate full of food in front of his girlfriend.

"Thank you, Stefan." Sara whispered low enough for only the vampires in the room to hear. She cared for Jeremy deeply, but he was so much like a child sometimes that he tested her patience. Sure, he was 17, but the hunter still had a lot of growing up to do. Something she noticed that Bonnie had a very hard time dealing with lately. It seemed the more childish he acted the more the former witch got pissed off. Sara didn't think that their relationship would last for much longer, if it wasn't already over that is.

"Sorry." Jeremy muttered before sitting down at the table, looking appropriately chastised. Everyone seemed to be yelling at him lately.

"Here, Sara." Elena said as she sat a glass of bourbon in front of the Striga.

Sara's eyes lit up at the drink. "Thanks, Elena." she smiled before bringing the tumbler to her lips and downing it in one gulp. The slow burn from her throat to her stomach was a welcomed feeling. God knows how much she needed that drink. Now if only she could light up a cigarette she'd be even more content, but she'd settle for just the food for now. Sara picked up her fork and stabbed at the salad on her plate before bringing the leafy greens covered in dressing to her lips.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Damon visibly relaxed as he watched her eat. She could only imagine how worried he must have been. She felt bad for not returning to him and others the moment she had come to in Nadia's car, but if she had she wouldn't have this deal with Nadia. Once she had finished her salad and half of her cheeseburger was she ready to answer their onslaught of questions.

"So, what happened?" Bonnie asked as she sat across from the Striga at the table. "Start with the chalice." she requested gently after Sara gave her a look that had blatantly stated 'where?'

"I honestly don't know what to tell you as far as that whole explosion is concerned. I've never known the chalice to contain magic. It simply wasn't a part of my life then, well up until the moment I was cursed that is." Sara herself still didn't understand what had caused that blast.

"But you said it was used for ceremonies?" Stefan questioned. A fancy silver chalice covered in gems used for ceremonies with its own special elixir? Yup, sounded like magic to him.

Sara nodded at him. "It was. Ceremonies like weddings and the births of new family members. The special elixir that we used was just wine and some herbs. No magical properties."

"That you can remember." Jeremy grumbled. Everyone glared at the hunter while Sara just raised an eyebrow.

"I may be ancient, but I have an excellent memory. Not to mention the fact that I used to watch my mother when she would make the elixir. She did so a handful of times during my childhood. She also had to teach me how to make it, because I would have to make it myself for my own wedding ceremony. It was sort of a tradition for the women in my family, but if you were a woman being married into the family then the matriarch would make the elixir. It was just a tradition we believed to bring good luck." Sara stated as she tried to keep her temper in check. She didn't like talking about her time as a human. There really were no happy memories there that she could think of, not considering how the progression of women's rights had been over the years. She wouldn't have even called it living back then, she was more alive now she supposed then she ever was human. "Even with what I know about magic now, nothing used in that elixir would have created anything close to resembling magic. So, the Traveler's must have done something to it since it became in their possession."

"When would that have been exactly? I mean, how does one come across a 2500-year-old cup like that?" Caroline asked.

"And didn't you say that there were two, Sara? I mean they only had one that we know of. What if they…"

Sara was quick to cut Elena off. "They only had one because there is only one. The other one was destroyed in a fire over two millennia ago. The one they had was the one that managed to survive the flames." She stated, wanting to get off this topic as quick as she could. "As for your question, Caroline I haven't the foggiest clue as to how or when they would've come across it. For all we know they could've stolen it from some museum somewhere." She said as she turned to the blonde vampire.

"Hey, we could ask her, couldn't we?" Matt asked as he pointed out toward the two women outside. "Maybe she knows." He stated in reference to Nadia.

"We could, but I doubt it." Sara shrugged as she looked out towards Nadia and Katherine. They were still talking, so she hoped for Nadia's sake that things were going well. "Nadia's only interest with the Travelers was that they could help her find Katherine. She doesn't even know who this grand master is that they're working for, even though she has spoken with him." She explained.

"Then why are you keeping her alive?" Damon asked with a growl. He didn't trust the Vampire Traveler who had broken into his house and taken his girlfriend. That fact that she was also Katherine's daughter made it even worse in his eyes.

Sara fixed Damon with a glare. "Because she's our only link to the Travelers, their Master, and this plan concerning your brother, Elena and Katherine." she snapped. "She may not know much now, but with her increased senses she can easily overhear things concerning this plan. That's how she found out that they knew where Katherine was." she stated rather bluntly. She loved Damon, she really did, but she could do without the attitude or the doubt in her judgement. If she thought Nadia was even the slightest threat to their group of friends, she wouldn't have brought her around.

Despite her own experiences, she was a sucker for family. Especially in Nadia's case. Had her daughter still been alive and looking for her after all these years, she would've wanted to meet her. Sadly, she knew that would never happen in her case, but at least her daughter had lived a fulfilling life surrounded by loved ones before she died. Knowingly and unknowingly. She only hoped that Katherine wouldn't be a complete disappointment to the vampire.

"How do you know?"

Sara was brought out of her thoughts by Stefan's question. "What?" she asked, unsure as to what he was referring to. What was it that she was supposed to know?

"That they only had one chalice. How can you be so sure that they don't have the other one?" he reiterated.

Oh, right. That. Sara had hoped that the subject of the chalice would've been done with, but apparently not. "I…"

"She just does." Damon growled out, fixing his brother with a look that said to drop it.

Stefan rolled his eyes, but dropped the subject. Excuse him for asking a question.

"So, what happened between you and Nadia?" Jeremy asked and Sara smiled at him, grateful for the subject change. Jeremy beamed at the positive attention.

All eyes were on Sara, they all wanted to know what happened between her and Katherine's daughter. Sara knew she couldn't tell them the whole truth, no need telling them about flying threw glass at 65 miles an hour. They'd all just worry and fuss over her. Even though her body showed no signs of the incident, the black silk negligee that she still wore was now a tattered mess. She was surprised no one mentioned the condition of it yet. She suddenly wished she had her robe to hide the now ruined garment, but she had no idea what had happened to it. For all she knew it was now at the bottom of quarry along with Nadia's car.

"Things started out a little rough, but we had a very long chat and she's gonna spy on the Travelers for us. Keep us informed and up to date on their movements."

"Why would she do that if she's one of them?" Elena asked, skeptical of this new plan. This new vampire added into their group.

Sara shrugged. "Like I said, she was only with them to find Katherine. In exchange for her life and helping her reunite with Katherine, she's going to find out all she can in order to help us."

"Sounds reason… Wait, what do you mean in exchange for her life? What happened between you two?" Caroline asked. Had Sara actually threatened to kill Nadia? Well, it made sense. The woman did kidnap her and all.

"Like I said, things started out rough. She wasn't exactly forth coming with information in the beginning." Sara shrugged again as she thought about the events that had taken place between them after Sara had escaped from the falling car.

Flashback

Sara stood face to face with Nadia, a glare fixed on the brunette vampire. She was going to start talking or else she'd take matters into her own hands. Just because Nadia was family didn't mean that she above Sara using compulsion or even force feeding her blood to the female vampire. Using her blood may be a little extreme, but desperate times call for desperate measures and she was desperate to get some answers. She was tired of being in the dark. She'd spent far too many years there as it was.

Nadia did her best to hold her ground and conjured up the best intimidating glare that she could muster when in reality she just wanted to bolt from the scene. But what would that leave her with? An angry Master who could kill her because she had failed to follow through with his orders and a pissed off Striga that could kill her for not complying with her demands for answers that they both knew she had all because she had wanted to find and save her mother who still didn't know who she truly was. She was dead either way unless she made the Striga believe she could be swayed to their side and help save everyone. Well, Nadia was no fool. If the Striga wanted her help, then Nadia was going to demand for the Striga's protection. After all, she did not want this creature as her enemy.

"I'll tell you all I know on one condition." Nadia said through gritted teeth, knowing in the back of her mind that she had no intention of truly telling the Striga anything of importance. She knew how to play dumb and she did it well.

Sara raised an eyebrow. Was this woman seriously making demands when she was the one who had kidnapped her and tried to lock her away in a watery cell? The woman had balls and Sara could see a lot of Katherine in her. Funny, considering she had never known the older vampire. "And what's that?" she asked, her hands on her hips.

"If I'm going to tell you what I know, then I'm going to need protection. No doubt when they realize that you're always a step ahead of them that they'll figure out it was me who double crossed them. They know about Katherine being my mother and that I intend on saving her from Him. I'll be dead before I even get the chance to tell her about me." Nadia said, playing the pity card and judging by the softness in Sara's gaze she had the Striga right where she wanted her.

"Done." She stated without hesitation. "You have my word to protect you from the Travelers in exchange for information about the Travelers and that you continue to spy on them for us. I'll expect daily reports." She said and Nadia realized that she didn't quite have her as she thought. Sara agreed to protect her, but in exchange she may as well have sold the creature her soul. For all she knew, she had. She just traded one insane Master in for an immortal Mistress.

Nadia sighed, in relief or agitation she wasn't sure. The Striga knew how to play this game, how to get what she wanted, so why was she so surprised? The woman had been around since near the beginning of time, okay so maybe she was that old, but still. This was not going according to Nadia's plan. What the hell had she thought was going to happen? She didn't know. "I don't know what He wants the Doppelgangers for, just that the Travelers were instructed to find them, wait and observe till they were given word to capture them. When he had learned that you were looking for them as well after your sources gained the information, he sent Pelicarpo to Mystic Falls in hopes to keep you away from here."

Sara visibly bristled at the mention of her former lover. Could he really even be called that? They had only been together once and he had not truly cared for her like she had him. She supposed not. "So, what do you know?" she spat, wondering if keeping her word to protect the woman was worth keeping if she was going to be so useless.

Nadia glared at the Striga for her tone that told her the she was not happy with her revelation. "I know that a new group of Travelers are arrive tonight to replace the ones you killed." She sneered.

"Does he plan on attacking us?"

"Not anytime soon. You've destroyed an important means to the plan." She stated before she realized what she had just said.

"You mean the chalice?" she asked, her eyes wide. "What did he want with it?" she asked as she thought back to the blast, had the Travelers turned it into something more than just a fancy drinking glass?

Nadia shook her head. She had to be careful, she was slipping. "I don't know. All I know is that when he found out you had it, he was desperate for me to get it back. Now that it's gone…" she paused giving the Striga a pointed look. "I don't know what he plans on doing. I still have to tell him that it's been destroyed." She said as she suddenly looked to the ground for her fallen cell phone. Not seeing it anywhere in the vicinity, she peered down over the cliff and swore. 'Fucking great.' She thought.

Sara still didn't understand why the Travelers had had it in the first place, but it seemed that Nadia didn't know either. She didn't seem to know much in fact. "How did you get involved with all of this?" she asked, curious. She didn't know vampires to hang around with outcasted witches or vice versa.

Nadia was surprised at the personal question, she figured it would be all business in her line of questioning. "When I learned that they were looking for doppelgangers, I overheard them looking for one by the name of Katherine Pierce. She is quite legendary, my mother." She stated with a proud look on her face and Sara's heart broke a little for the fact that Nadia seemed to hold Katherine in such high regards when really the woman was worth anything but. "I'd been looking for her for centuries with little to no hope to go on, when all of a sudden I had stumbled on this group of people that knew where to find her. I wasn't going to let the opportunity pass me by." She said, deviating slightly from the truth. The truth was she had been with the Travelers long before they had been instructed to find the last three doppelgangers, before they had even started running Sara out of several countries. She'd been with them for years before she had learned that they knew of her mother's location. She just knew the Travelers had a connection to her mother because her grandfather had once been the leader of a traveler band and when she had disclosed who she was to Gregor, he had pushed for her acceptance into their clan even though she was a vampire.

Sara listened to her story and she decided then that she would try to give Nadia some sort of a happy ending. She was a sucker for a reunited mother/daughter story, something she never got to do with her own child. Though she had watched over her, she had never allowed her to close enough were they had made any sort of contact. They had never talked, never touched one another, her daughter had never even laid eyes on her in a crowd, she had never let herself be seen. She had protected her from unseen dangers, supplied means of medicine when she got ill or food when they ran out so her child wouldn't starve, she had done everything a mother in her situation could do and she had done it all for nothing in return.

Sara quickly whipped away a tear before it could fall and shuffled on her feet, blaming the sudden breeze that had blown in her direction for getting something in her eye. "Well, then Nadia. How would you finally like to meet Katherine?" she offered genuinely.

Nadia's eyes lit up. Even though she had already met Katherine, the woman still didn't who she truly was. This could be a good thing, but she reeled in her happiness and fixed the Striga with a skeptical glare. "In exchange for what?" she asked.

Sara shook her head. "Nothing. You're already doing what I need you to do, providing information. Consider this a bonus. I'll introduce you." She said and once again the two women just stood there, staring at one another.

Nadia wanted to be skeptical, she didn't dare trust the Striga into thinking that she would allow her some sort of happy ending. He wouldn't. However, seeing as this was all working in her favor what with the Striga believing that she was being honest her, why shouldn't she take advantage of using the Striga to make her plan go a little easier. She still didn't know how she planned on telling Katherine that she was her mother, if the Striga was willing to help with that then so be it. So, Nadia let a smile graze her lips as she conjured up her best grateful tone. "I'd like that very much."

Sara nodded and Nadia believed that the smile she graced was truly genuine. "Then we best be going then." She said as she took a hold of Nadia's hand and together they disappeared from the quarry in a puff of black smoke.

End Flashback

"How'd you find out she was related to Katherine? I don't see her coming out and telling you all of this." Damon asked, bringing her back to the present.

"That's because she didn't tell me. I just knew." She informed.

"How?" Bonnie asked in wonder.

"The same way that I know Katherine an Elena are related to me, even if we didn't look exactly alike. It's another one of my abilities. I can identify my family's descendants base on their soul. I can't really explain it, but it's just a feeling I get." Sara said with a shrug. This ability wasn't something that was easy to explain, it was just the way that their souls reached out to her that she knew. It was something she felt deep down in her own soul. "They're soul shares a connection with mine. Nadia's was no different than Katherine's or Elena's. I can also tell how old a person is based on they're soul."

"So, you can technically tell if someone's a vampire just by looking at them?" Elena asked, remembering the time when she had first met Stefan and Damon and asked if it was possible to identify vampires from the humans without just coming out and asking.

"I guess in a way I can." Sara nodded, though she had never really thought of it that way. She typically just assumed that if anyone's soul told her that they were older than they appeared, with a non-reasonable difference, that they were a vampire. Very rarely were they something else, but that was not always the case. She had come across many different creatures that were believed to be a myth over the centuries.

"That's really cool." Matt grinned in awe. Every time he learned something new about the Striga he was not only impressed, but also a little bit more afraid of her. However, that fear was directed more towards a deeper feeling of respect. He just prayed that he was never on the wrong side of Sara.

Sara smiled. "I guess." She giggled.

"So, what else can you do?" Bonnie asked, her curiosity getting the better of her. Since meeting this new supernatural creature she had done her best to come up with what she could about the Striga. Doing late night research on the internet and flipping through books that she believed would provide anything useful about her. The only reason why she didn't ask Sara herself was because she thought she was being too nosey and it was quite a personal question. Why would the Striga divulge all about herself when it was clear by all the lack of concrete information available that she had wanted to remain a mystery? Nothing, but a myth.

Sara didn't know how to answer Bonnie's question. It was very personal and to be honest not all her abilities were so great, like her toxic blood. Believe it or not, there were worse things she could do, that she had done. She had never been so grateful to see Katherine walk through the back door that in that moment.

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Everyone was sat around the large kitchen table, chatting and eating when Katherine entered the house. "I don't suppose any of you saved me some food?" She sneered as she looked around at everyone's empty plates.

"Why would we do that? You're always saying how you'd rather find someone to eat rather than have what we're having." Jeremy sneered back at her, rolling his eyes. He had a point too. Katherine typically did not join them for meals when they all got together.

"You're right, Jeremy." Katherine said before flashing behind him. "So maybe I'll just help myself." she growled as the veins around her eyes bulged and her fangs elongated.

"Woah!" Jeremy yelled, shooting up out of his chair and staring at the vampire threatening to 'eat' him.

"Katherine!" Bonnie shouted, a little surprise that she would threaten Jeremy like that. Okay, well maybe she wasn't by surprised the action itself, but more of the timing of it.

"Leave Jeremy alone Katherine!" Elena growled as she sped over to stand in front of her brother.

"Or what Elena? What could you possibly do to me?" Katherine sneered as she got into her doppelganger's face. Sara merely raised an eyebrow in the vampire's direction and Katherine visibly shrank back a bit.

"Okay, what the hell is going on here?" Caroline asked as she looked around at everyone. Seriously, what the hell had crawled up Katherine's ass?

"Good question." Stefan said as he folded his arms and glared at Katherine. "Katherine?"

"Where's Nadia?" Sara asked. She noticed that Katherine had come in alone and that Nadia was nowhere in sight. What had Katherine done?

Katherine turned her glare from Elena to Sara. "She left." she snapped.

"What? Where'd she go?" Sara asked standing up from the table. She was surprised that Nadia would've just left without telling her. They were supposed to be a team now.

"How the hell am I supposed to know?" Katherine rolled her eyes at the Striga. "She didn't tell me and I didn't ask." she sneered, clearly not giving a damn about Nadia before turning on her heels and walking out of the kitchen.

"Seriously, what the hell just happened?" Caroline asked again as she looked around at the others for some sort of explanation.

"Oh just shut up already, Caroline." Sara grumbled before quickly leaving the kitchen, Caroline's mouth hanging open in shock. Sara passed by Katherine in the living room, who was helping herself to the liquor cabinet, as she made her way upstairs.

Katherine grinned as the sound of a door slamming upstairs reached her ears. Everything was going perfectly according to plan and she had finally managed to piss off the Striga. It may have not been the smartest thing, but she was considering it a win for the time being as she took a sip of her bourbon. Ah, perfect.

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A couple of hours later…

Damon stood outside his bedroom door. He wasn't sure if going in the smartest thing to do, but he knew it was the right thing. Sara was obviously upset about something and he had a pretty good idea about what it was too. He allowed her time to deal with what was upsetting her, giving her the opportunity to cool off before going upstairs to talk to her. In hindsight, he should've gone up right away to avoid an equally upset Caroline.

"Sara, baby?" he called softly as he knocked on the door to let her know he was coming in, that was if the door wasn't locked. He gripped the handle and it turned easily enough in his palm. He opened the door slowly and when nothing came flying at it, he slowly poked his head in. It was easy to spot the Striga, she stood in front of the balcony door, wearing a knee length dark pink silk robe and he assumed the matching negligee that she usually wore with it. It was a little strange to see her in something other than her black silk negligee, but considering she'd been dressed in it throughout the day, he was not surprised that she had change. He recalled seeing a few small holes in it and he would have to ask how those came to be. No doubt it was caused by whatever had happened between her and Nadia.

Her long brown locks hung loose and in fresh waves, indicating that Sara must've taken a shower or something. Funny, he didn't remember hearing the water running. He was probably too busy getting an earful from Caroline to have noticed. The curtains were drawn back and the sunset lit up the room with its golden hue. He thought Sara looked like an angel and would've gladly whisked her off to bed if he thought he could get away with it.

As he came up behind her, Sara heaved out a long, sad sigh. He brought his hands up to her shoulders, giving them a squeeze before trailing them down her arms and around her waist. "You wanna talk about it?" he asked as she leaned back into his chest. He had been wrong concerning the matching negligee, the fabric she was wearing wasn't silk. He quickly peered down her front and saw she was wearing a pair of pj shorts and a tank top with no bra. He swallowed thickly.

"No…yes...I don't know." she said with a sigh, shaking her head before stepping out of his embrace and moving past him. "I just can't believe her." she bristled.

"Who?" Damon asked as he sat down on the end of the bed. And here we go.

"Katherine!" Sara spat as she thought about how the 1473 vampire acted down stairs and the things she had said. "She should be grateful for this second chance. Her daughter is alive and has been looking for her after all these years and yet she acts like she doesn't even care." Sara huffed as she paced around their bedroom. She had been told how much of a bitch Katherine could be and had seen some of it firsthand herself, but this was the woman's child for god's sake! A child that was still alive, who just wanted to get to know the woman who gave life to her and Katherine was treating her like she did everyone else. Like Nadia was something that belonged under her shoe until she wanted something from her. "I don't care what she's been through, had I just been reunited with my child that was taken from me I'd put aside my selfish tendencies and try to get to know the woman that my daughter became."

Damon wasn't sure what to say to her to get her to calm down, this topic was a little out of his depth. "Well, maybe she's just in shock. After all, she thought Nadia was dead all these years." The murderous look he received told him that that was the wrong thing to say. Shit.

"You are not seriously defending Katherine?" Sara growled as she narrowed her eyes.

"No, I'm not." he said with a shake of his head. He liked breathing. "Yeah, Katherine's a bitch and could've handled the situation better, but we don't know why Nadia left. For all we know, she just had to go. You said she was going to act as our spy, maybe she needed to get back before anyone noticed she was gone." He offered as some sort of an explanation.

Sara's gaze softened before she sighed and made her way over towards the bed and sat down beside him. "It's just, I saw the way Nadia's face lit up at the prospect of finally meeting Katherine. I guess I had just hoped that Katherine wouldn't have been the disappointment I knew Nadia deserve. Clearly, she was. Katherine doesn't care about anyone, but Katherine."

"Yeah, well that's not our problem, Baby. How Katherine and Nadia deal with this is between them." Damon murmured into her ear as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into him, placing a kiss to her temple. After some time, Damon asked a question that Sara had yet to answer during the tales of her past. "What was her name?"

"Hmm?" Sara asked as she looked up at him through her lashes, her head resting on his shoulder.

"Your daughter, what was her name?"

A sad smile graced Sara's lips as she thought of the child she had given birth to so very long ago. "Andromeda. It means 'to beware of man,' something I thought that was appropriate considering how she came to be conceived. However, the couple that raised her named her Althea, meaning 'one who heals.' I guess that's what she was to them, something healing. According to the old woman, the couple had tried for years to get pregnant and had nearly given up all hope till she asked if they would take the child."

"Did you ever regret giving her up?"

"Giving up my daughter had been the hardest thing that I'd ever done, but it was the right thing to do. I never thought I was going to live long enough to take care of her. The old woman had been certain that I was going to die and for a moment there, I did too. Even though my child had not been created out of love and the pregnancy had been difficult, the moment she was in my arms I loved her with all my being. I didn't want to think about what would happen to her if I was to die and she would be left with nothing and no one. Who would take in the child of a whore?"

"You are not a whore." Damon growled as he pulled back, fixing her with a hard stare. "Please, stop calling yourself that." He hated that she thought of herself as such when what had happened to her had not been her fault. If Pelicarpo ever came back and showed his sorry face around here again, Damon was going to beat the shit out him for what he had done and was still doing to Sara. Just because the man looked like his brother didn't mean he couldn't hurt the guy, he had beaten up Stefan plenty of times after all. "So, what did the old woman tell the couple when she asked if they would take her in?"

"She told them that the mother had died during childbirth and that the father had died long before due to a casualty of war and there was no other family to be found. So, they agreed to take her in and raised her as their own, grateful to finally have a child to love and care for."

"Did you ever think of taking her back?" Damon asked, curious since she obviously did get better.

Sara nodded. Of course she had. "I thought about it sure, but when I was cursed I knew I could never reclaim my child. I feared I would do to her what I had done to everyone else, even though the child was an innocent." She sighed. She had killed plenty of truly innocent people, including children. The creature inside her did not waiver when it came to the age of a soul, a soul was a soul. "So, I stayed away, but I was never too far away that I didn't know her. Even though she would never know me."

"That must've been very hard for you to do." He murmured as he placed a kiss to her temple, pulling her into his chest.

"Not really. I never wanted to get to close, because I was so afraid I'd hurt her. I didn't have the control then that I do now. Well, did, but even now it's better than when I was first dealing with the change. It took a good fifty years before I was truly able to fully function in society and appear as human." Another reason why she had watched her daughter grow up from a far.

Damon nodded. He couldn't imagine how she had gotten threw it, how scared she must've been to think that she could possibly be the reason to cause her child's life to end prematurely if she were to get to close to her. He couldn't imagine watching his child grow up without them ever knowing him, without being a part of their lives somehow. Apparently, Sara couldn't either because when she had first told him of what had happened to her, she had said that she had ensured that Andromeda/Althea had married for love, something Sara never got to do. At least, not yet. "So how much of meddling mother were you?" he asked with a smirk.

Sara chuckled at his question. "Enough of one I can assure you." she grinned. "I may not have raised my child, but I did encourage the scared young man that I knew who loved her and she loved in return to asked her parents for her hand in marriage before he could back out. He was afraid that they would refuse his marriage proposal because he was just a poor boy who lived on a farm."

"And did they?" Damon asked with an eyebrow raised.

Sara shook her head. "They accepted, with some convincing." she said with a smirk that told him all he needed to know.

"You mean a little compulsion."

"Let's just say that I learned of that ability very early on." she grinned.

"I don't doubt it." he laughed before his face and tone grew serious. "So, about this deal you have with Nadia, can we trust her?" He wasn't sure what to think of the vampire and seeing as she was Katherine's child, he wasn't so convinced that they weren't dealing with a mini Katherine, well so to speak.

"I don't know, but if she tries anything, Katherine's child or not, family or not, I'll kill her and that will be that. I told her as much. I may be a sucker for family, but let's face it, I don't exactly have the greatest track record when it comes to them." she stated. What had started as an unsure statement finished in an angry snarl as the memories of betrayal came to the forefront of her mind. No one had ever been there for her when she truly needed them, so why should she spare those that continued to cross her. Double cross at that. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. No one ever got that second a chance. She never allowed it.

x-TOPD-x

A/N: Alright, I hope you all enjoyed the double post. I've been trying for the last week to get these two chapters finished and finally I'm satisfied with them both. Chapter 16 should be posted soon, hopefully in a few weeks. I want to get chapter 17 started before I do so. I have a rough outline, so you shouldn't have to wait too long for another update. Promise! Something to look forward to; chapter 16 is purely a Damon/Sara centered chapter with no other characters present and a little smut at the end to look forward to. I think you all deserve it. ;)

Remember, reviews fuel the muses and are always appreciated. Till next time.

LadySparx