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As she sat on her porch, Elena couldn't decide if another message was overkill. It had been a week since Sheila Bennett had passed away, barely making it home after the fire spell diminished her energy. Bree had tried to help, but there'd been nothing she could do and grams had fallen asleep and never woken up.

They'd had the funeral the day before, a solemn and small affair. Afterwards, there had been a small gathering of witches that Bree had organised. Bonnie had no idea what was done to send off a witch and had been glad for the help. Elena, obviously, hadn't attended that part so she hadn't seen Bonnie since the church service and dearly wanted to check in. Bonnie, however, was letting her phone go to voicemail. Elena had left 3 voicemails already, and was starting to worry, but didn't want to make Bonnie's grief worse by harassing her. She decided to hang up.

Bonnie needed to know it wasn't her fault, that choosing to help Anna and Damon hadn't caused her grams death, but Elena knew Bonnie wouldn't believe her if she tried to tell her. She'd been told the same thing about her parents' death. People had said she couldn't have known, or that her parents would have rather picked her up than her walk home, that it wasn't her fault. Elena had never believed them; the facts were simple. If she hadn't snuck out, the accident wouldn't have happened. The solace was in knowing it wasn't deliberate, and it didn't mean fate wouldn't have found another way. Acceptance that she couldn't change the past was starting to help her move forward, but that took time. Another voicemail wasn't going to help.

Elena sighed, picking up her diary and putting it on her lap. The funeral had made her miss her parents, especially her mum. She'd wanted to talk about Grams, about Bonnie. Hell, she was dying to speak to someone about Damon. Jenna wasn't great at boy talk- her answer was always to love 'em and leave 'em; she'd been scorned a few too many times. Alaric seemed to be good for her though, she'd talked non-stop about the History teacher for almost a full day now. It was nice to see someone smiling.

Jeremy had been sulking the entire time. From what Elena had gathered, Anna had told him she would be leaving Mystic Falls. Elena was glad, Jeremy didn't need to be pulled into the world of vampires. Would Damon leave too? They could be almost free of the supernatural- apart from Bonnie- and could just be regular highschoolers.

There would still be the fact that she looked identical to Katherine though. The fact seemed more important now she knew Katherine was out there, living her life, and Elena could accidentally bump into her anywhere. That was part of what she'd wanted to ask her mum. For the past weeks, Elena had assumed Katherine would be able to explain their unusual similarity. Now she wasn't there, Elena wanted to investigate. Was there a link in her family tree?

Her mum wasn't there though. Elena pulled her sleeve over her thumb and wiped her eyes. Dwelling on the thought wasn't helping.

She needed to ask Jenna.

Determination took hold of her as she returned inside to the kitchen, where Jenna had been propped against the island reading a textbook.

"I want to learn more about my family tree." Elena announced.

"What?" Jenna froze, a look of utter horror on her face. This wasn't the reaction Elena expected, shocked she just repeated herself.

"Erm, yeah, Jenna mumbled. Maybe tomorrow." She left her textbook wide open and left out the front door before Elena could even process a response. That was strange.

x-x-x-x

Damon rolled over and threw his arm over the warm body sleeping peacefully next to him. He was thirsty, he realised, as he stretched out his toes and opened his eyes, adjusting to the light. Laying a light kiss on the back of the witch next to him, he lifted himself out of bed and trotted down to the cellar to pick up a blood bag.

His supply was still pretty high he thought to himself as he picked an O positive bag for breakfast and headed back up. He would usually be due a refill, but he'd spent a couple of days drinking the real stuff. A trip to Whitmore had been just what he needed after the she-devil had betrayed him. Thinking of Katherine had him completely and utterly distracted, every time, and he had to focus on pouring the blood into a glass instead of letting the thirst and anger consume him. He'd done that the first night.

He'd returned home from the news and headed straight for the cell with Noah. That bastard had wanted to free Katherine too, and Damon needed to rub salt in his wounds with the information she was alive. He wasn't the only one she had played like a fiddle.

All he had found was Noah's lifeless corpse, a stake through the chest, still hung from the cuffs he had placed him in. Instantly on high alert, he had searched the boarding house to find Elena's teacher, or all people, casually sipping his bourbon.

He hadn't been in the mood to hear his pre-prepared speech about good and evil. Damon had left both bodies in the house before departing for Whitmore. His favourite hunting ground.

He'd been partying pretty hard when Bree found him, stopping him before he could cause any of the sorority girls any lasting damage. He wasn't sure if he was glad for her help or not, but she'd certainly distracted him from his thirst. It hadn't lasted long enough. He needed to drink, and he needed to do it without losing his control.

Focusing on the blood had dulled his other senses, and he hadn't heard her come in. As he turned to take his drink back to bed, the young brunette in front of him started him. He fought to not flinch, to keep his cool and to set his face into a wicked grin. After all, he hadn't put on a stich of clothing after leaving the bed and Elena was currently getting an eyeful of everything. He couldn't waste such an opportunity to torment her.

"Morning 'Lena." His grin widened as she covered her eyes with both hands, dropping the documents she was holding.

"Can you put some clothes on?"

"Give me a second." Damon whizzed a lap around the house then returned to standing right in front of her without a stitch on. He loudly took a slurp of his blood, making his presence known.

She took the bait, and uncovered her eyes as she began "I just want….". The girl was almost drooling.

He couldn't help laughing out loud at the shade of beetroot she was turning as she shrieked then hastily tried to cover her eyes again. His laughs just became heartier when he caught her splitting her fingers to spy through them just seconds later.

"Okay… Okay, I'll actually get dressed."

As he headed back to his room, Elena started updating him on the events since he had left, knowing full well that he could hear her. He wasn't sure why she thought he needed to know how Bonnie was doing or about Grams. Bree had already explained to him the circumstances surrounding the witches death and left for a few hour yesterday whilst he had been sleeping to attend the service. He was mildly interested that Anna and Pearl had signalled their intention to leave, but he really, really didn't care that Jeremy was moping. Did anyone care that Matt and Caroline were both avoiding each other, seriously? Teenagers were idiots. Jenna's reaction to Elena's question though, that was interesting.

The girl really could talk, she'd blabbed the full update out whilst barely taking a breath in the time it had taken him to pull on a pair of jeans and a button-up (left unbuttoned of course, he still wanted her to blush) and come down the stairs.

"So, Jenna knows something odd about your family, huh?" Elena nodded, nibbling her bottom lip and playing with her sleeves. She was really overthinking this, he could tell. He reached out and gently pulled her wrist down, so she sat next to him on the couch.

"Elena, if Jenna knows something it's probably recent. Your generation or hers. It could be anything, from an adoption to a secret affair or to something more sinister." He paused to stroke the hair out of her eye as she looked down at her hands. His voice softened, "You know there's only one way to find out, don't you?"

Elena nodded, then lifted her eyes up to meet his.

It felt like he held her gaze for a lifetime, watching the pain and anxiety swimming in her eyes. How could he help her, how could he fix it?

He pulled her closer, closing his eyes as he placed a kiss on the top of her head. "Let's go speak to her together, yeah?"

It was only hours later that he realised he'd left half a glass of blood on the side table- he hadn't been thirsty anymore.

x-x-x-x

They'd agreed to approach Jenna straight away, deciding on a strategy on the way over. Damon had tried to insist on compelling her to 'fess up, but Elena insisted on keeping that as a last resort. She was relieved when they pulled up and Jenna's car was parked there, waiting with Damon for an unknown period wasn't how she wanted to spend her day. She hadn't dared yet ask him where he had disappeared to. Bree had sent her a curtesy text to say he had returned to the boarding house, but no details. Elena had tried to not worry about Damon on top of everything else she had been processing that week, but it had been almost impossible.

He'd lost the love of his life, quite literally. He had no idea where she was, he just knew she had chosen to leave him, and to let him believe she was trapped. How was it possible to forgive that, move on? She was partly surprised that Damon hadn't gone on a killing spree, maybe he had- just far enough away it hadn't made the news here. She was too afraid to ask.

Jenna was back studying in the front room when they entered the house, and Damon took charge as planned.

"Hey Jenna, good book? I've heard it's got some killer plot twists." Jenna looked down at her Psychology textbook and let out a giggle as Damon gave her his signature smirk.

Elena came around the other side and sat next to her.

"Jenna, you acted really weird early and I just wanted to check you were okay." Elena smiled, trying to be reassuring. She didn't want Jenna to close up and freak out as she wasn't sure she could resist the urge to let Damon compel her. The unknown was almost too much to bear, and the answers were so close. Her morals told her not to, but there was a voice in the back of her mind telling her it would be quick and easy. She ignored it, trying to do this the right way. Luckily, Jenna went with it.

Her aunt took a deep breath, clearly gathering her thoughts, as she closed the textbook.

"You sure you want Damon here for this?"

Elena glanced across and met his eyes. She knew he would wait outside if she asked him too, but he wouldn't go far and would be able to hear anyway. Plus, it felt good to have him here. She'd ponder why later.

After she nodded, Jenna started her story. Elena was adopted. Her parents, Miranda and Grayson, had difficulty conceiving. They never told Jenna the full story, but she knew a young girl had arrived at the clinic to give birth. She'd disappeared completely after being discharged, leaving her baby in the care of the clinic's doctor, Dr Gilbert. He and Miranda had brought the girl in, claiming her as their own. They'd not exactly followed correct legal process, so hadn't planned on telling Elena until both her and Jeremy were mature enough to keep the story to themselves.

During the long story, Elena and Damon had both remained silent, though Damon had slowly moved to rest on the back of the sofa behind Elena, his hand running through her hair to soothe her. Elena appreciated the calming effect, she felt strangely numb at the news. It wasn't expected news, but it also felt so inevitable- like this was something she'd suspected deep down since she'd discussed being a descendant of Katherine. She's had a feeling it had separated her from the founding family Gilberts.

"Do you know anything about her?" She asked, hopeful that Jenna would be able to lead her directly to her birth mother, someone who might know the connection to Katherine.

Jenna turned back to her textbook, sneaking a printed page out of the back cover.

"When you asked earlier, I went to find this. It's a picture of your birth mother. Isobel Fleming."

Elena gulped, taking it. Her mother had been a happy, smiling, cheerleader. She had the same smile that Elena had often worn before her parent's death. Damon must have noticed a resemblance too because his hand moved to her shoulder and gripped her firmly. A little too firmly.

"How…" Elena began, before reconsidering. "Why…" She couldn't get her words out so Jenna continued instead.

"When I became your guardian, I didn't want to lie to you about this. I'd always disagreed with it being kept from you- it's not like you would go around announcing it to everyone you met, even as a child. So, I did some digging whilst I was sorting out Miranda and Grayson's files. I found her first name, Isobel, in a patient file your Dad had, and the town she was from. So, I went through the year book. It's definitely her- she's with Trudi Peterson. She used the fake surname Peterson when she arrived at the clinic."

Elena nodded, looking back at the photo. "Thank you for telling me, Jenna."

They hugged, they cried, and then they just sat. As Elena started to stand, ready to send Damon off and return to her room, Jenna spoke.

"Wait, there's more. Well, maybe. I'm not sure." Elena looked at her, what more could there be? "Alaric's wife was about the same age and from the same town. Her name was Isobel."

"Was?"

"It's probably not her, it would be a big coincidence." Elena just raised an eyebrow, willing her to continue. "Alaric's wife is dead."

Elena looked at Damon, hoping he would reassure her that the coincidence was too great, but he didn't speak. He'd been in stony silence since they'd first seen the photo of her birth mother. He now looked like he'd seen a ghost, and when she met his eyes all she could see was guilt.

What had he done?

x-x-x-x

Caroline was bingeing her way through another DVD boxset when her phone rang. Jenna was calling her. Jenna?

She picked up quickly, her mind imagining scenarios at 100 disasters a minute.

"Hey Caroline. I was wondering if you can do me a favour?"

"Sure Jenna, what do you need?"

"Can you come and persuade Elena to come out tonight? There's a charity auction at the grill and she needs to get out. Desperately."

Caroline's heart lifted. A girls night was exactly what she needed. The week had been filled with Bonnie's doom and gloom and whilst Caroline knew Bonnie needed to be their priority, she had desperately needed to complain about her failing love life. When she tried, Elena had shot her a warning look and she'd had to keep it bottled up. Being a supportive friend sucked sometimes.

She arrived at the Gilbert house several hours, 3 outfits and 2 hairstyles later. The number of shoe and bag combinations she had tried was quite frankly ridiculous, even for her. She needed this night out, and she needed to dazzle every single person who looked her way.

Elena was still in her jeans and layered tops, she was not ready for a night out so Caroline instantly began pulling outfits out of her wardrobe. After selecting 3 options, she sent Elena to get changed. To her surprise, Elena chose the option even Caroline had thought was a bit risqué. Accidentally showing her surprise when Elena arrived, she quickly tried to cover it up.

"You look fantastic Elena! Jenna, come see how fantastic she looks!" She shouted into the hall.

Elena blushed and pulled the hem of her dress down slightly. Caroline couldn't help but giggle.

"O. M. G. I feel like as a responsible parental figure I should be telling you to get changed." Jenna said, before taking a sip of her wine, "But that would make me quite a hypocrite." She gestured down at her own outfit before turning to Caroline and mouthing 'She looks hot!'

An hour later, all three girls were fully made up and ready to go out on the town. Perfectly on time, Alaric knocked on the door ready to be the designated driver for the night. Jenna usually made Elena drive to the Grill, so either she really wanted to see Alaric for an extra 10 minutes or she was planning on looking the other way when Elena and Caroline snuck in a few drinks later. Caroline hoped it was the latter, Jenna was always the fun aunt.

x-x-x-x

Damon sat at the bar, contemplating the day's turn of events.

He knew Elena's mother. He'd turned Elena's mother. How could he possibly tell Elena that technically he had killed her birth mother?

As soon as Jenna had brought the photo out, he had known he was doomed. He'd just held onto Elena tighter, hoping he could control himself from making a quip about her mother's fate. That would be just like him. When Jenna had mentioned the possible connection, he'd instantly known it wasn't just a weird coincidence.

One positive was that he didn't need to worry about why her history teacher had decided to try and turn into Van Helsing. He'd walked in on them, and probably recognised Damon for what he was the moment he saw him. Damon couldn't blame the guy for wanting revenge for his wife's murder. He almost regretted not letting him speak, he might have been let him live. Probably not though, the vampire hunter had picked a terrible night to piss Damon off.

That was another thing he'd have to tell Elena if he told her about Isobel. He hadn't just killed her mother, but her mother's husband. Did that make Alaric Saltzman her step-dad? Wasn't he also on the road to becoming her uncle? Yep, that conversation wasn't going to end well.

The idea of letting Elena down made him want to drown in whisky, and he'd sure tried hard.

"You look like you need another drink." The new bartender said, greeting him as she grabbed a tumbler and poured out the special bourbon kept under the bar at the Grill.

"Glad you know my order already." Damon winked at her.

Bree had decided to stay a while and replacing Ben- the vampire he'd staked in Anna's motel room- as a bartender at the Grill had been her idea. He'd helped with some compulsion so she could start straight away, but he knew she'd be a good fit. She'd also be a brilliant set of eyes and ears in case the town council started getting suspicious. He hadn't decided yet how he felt about her staying, especially as she had claimed a room at the boarding house without asking, but as she was doing a very good job of keeping him distracted when he needed it there wasn't much point in arguing.

Liz Forbes came to sit beside him. "I need a favour."

"You ever been in love?" Maybe he was a little drunk, he had finished off a bottle back at the boarding house before deciding the place was too empty with Bree at work. Ah well. "Have you ever been so hell bent on someone, just to have your heart ripped out by them?" She'd done it to him, and now he was about to do it to Elena. She might not be in love with him, but she trusted him and he was about to betray that in the worst way.

"You forget I was married," the Sheriff replied, bringing his drifting thoughts back to reality.

"Right. Gay husband. Bummer." He snickered to himself. Definitely too much. He gestured to Bree, "she'll have what I'm having."

Liz Forbes went on to beg him to participate in a ridiculous auction in which he would get auctioned off as a date for the single ladies of Mystic Falls. Damon, having memory of auctions involving humans as property, felt it was in bad taste but he agreed. Better keep the Sheriff happy.

x-x-x-x

Tonight was not the night that Elena fancied a girl's night, but Jenna had demanded it and brought Caroline in as reinforcements. She'd also promised to slip Elena a shot or two through the night to help her make it through.

She'd planned on just allowing them to drag her there for a bit before making an early escape, but when Caroline had picked her some outfits a different plan came to mind. Damon had tried to mess with her earlier. (Seriously, who stood naked in their front room?) Maybe she could have some fun back. He was bound to be there, it was Bree's first shift.

As they walked in, she headed straight to the bar not needing to look for him. He had acquired his own spot he frequented the Grill so often. As she approached, she noticed a difference in him.

"Wow, you look…"

"Dashing. Gorgeous. Irresistable." He lent in and whispered the last word in her ear. She had to admit, it sent chills down her spine but she ignored it as best she could.

"Wrecked." She glared at him, but he couldn't hold her gaze. That same guilty look he'd let slip through earlier reappeared and he spun to look down at his drink instead of at her. "God Damon, the auction hasn't even started."

She spun on her very high heels and marched back to the table Caroline had secured for them. She hoped he was at least watching her walk away, she'd dressed for revenge and didn't want it to be wasted.

"So, erm, you and Damon?" Caroline asked her. Her friend tried to be upbeat in the question, but Elena knew her better. Caroline was having a tough time after deciding not to pursue things with Matt.

"God no." She said emphatically. "He's just a flirt, and a massive jerk. I am not interested in going there." She didn't care if he sent chills down her spine or gave her goosebumps. Damon might have been there when she needed, but he was still Damon Salvatore. He's killed people, he'd turned Vicki. He'd been AWOL for the best part of the last week doing god knows what with god knows who, probably adding to his body count. "I'll never want Damon Salvatore that way."

She remembered he could hear her and quickly added, "He's a friend." She was pissed with him, but she didn't have to be a total bitch.

Caroline nodded, looking over Elena's shoulder at the bar. Damon must have reacted to her little speech. "He's bad news Elena. Trust me."

A change of topic was needed, and they were soon discussing the upcoming auctions. Jenna had convinced Alaric and there were a couple of other eligible bachelors-all too old for the teenage girls. Even Damon was really, especially if you considered his real age. They'd probably both make a big though, that should wind him up.

The sound of smashing glass at the bar startled them both. Turning to look, Damon was stood by his stool with shattered glass around his feet. He was staring at the doors. Following his gaze, Elena saw who had just walked in. Her aunt Jenna, arm in arm with Alaric Saltzman.

What did that have to do with Damon?

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