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They were going to meet later that evening, it was decided, at the grill. He'd tried to convince Elena against it and offered to take Isobel out. She had predictably refused his generous offer, and now he was stuck waiting to watch the catastrophe unfold.
Bree topped his and Ric's drinks up as they sat at the bar, both sombre and silent.
"So, Isobel. How did that meeting go?" Damon dared to ask Alaric, expecting a barbed reply but at least it was conversation.
"About as well as you would expect," the frown lines on his forehead deepened as he took a gulp of his bourbon, "she's not the woman I married."
Damon pursed his lips, "That's what happens when you give up your humanity."
"See, I don't get that. You're the world's biggest dick and you've killed how many people, but I still see something human in you. She was… cold, distant."
Oh boy, this was not going to be a fun discussion. Signalling to Bree that they were going to need the bottle, he turned to his friend. Was he a friend? Alaric had tried to kill him, but then Damon had killed Alaric. Frenemy?
Deciding to pursue that train of thought a few drinks later, Damon sighed before swivelling on his stool to explain the situation, "It's like a switch, a big button you can press to stick up a giant wall between you and your emotions, your empathy. The younger you are, the more solid the wall. Like a real wall, it deteriorates with age. Isobel chose to put up the wall, and hers is a fucking palisade."
Alaric fiddled with his tumbler, his eyes down at the bar as he processed the information, "You haven't. Why?"
Damon just grinned at him, "Of course I have, Ric."
Bree cleared her throat behind the bar, causing both men to look up at her.
She met his gaze, and he held it, refusing to look away. If Bree wanted to say something she could damn well say it, not hint and beat around the bush.
Her eyes blazed with defiance; he knew her opinions of what kind of wall he had up- if any. Even he had to admit when it came to Elena, if he had any barrier left it was a white picket fence. She held his gaze steadily, willing him to make a move.
"I just guess some walls are thicker than others" He smiled glumly, before downing his drink and wandering over to one of the booths. He'd overheard some rather amusing conversation, and he was about to make a perfectly timed entrance.
x-x-x-x
Finally, the three of them could sit and gossip. She'd caught up with Elena at Miss Mystic Falls, and with Bonnie as she was getting ready before her date with Tyler, but Caroline felt like it had been ages since they'd all been sitting together in the grill gossiping.
Elena wasn't really with it, her eyes kept scanning over to the entrance. Caroline would have taken the opportunity to tease her mercilessly about waiting for Damon, but it wasn't him she was looking for. He was sat at the bar with Alaric. It really was a bit odd that both of them had dated (was Elena officially dating him yet?) someone old enough to be friends with their history teacher. He was a dick too, Caroline thought to herself, but she had warned her friend and that's all she could do. Now she would be supportive, teasing aside.
Eventually, she would probe into it and find out who Elena was waiting for. God, was it Stefan? Was she really going to do some stupid love triangle thing? Caroline hoped not, she couldn't bear hearing about that every day. Stefan was obviously the better choice, but Elena rarely made good choices. I mean, she wore her hair straight.
Thinking that she really must stop being so catty in her head, Caroline launched into the description of her date with Tyler that she'd been so desperate to share with her friends.
"He was a proper gentleman, he opened the doors for me, pulled my chair out. He even helped me put my jacket on!"
Both Elena and Bonnie's eyes popped out of their heads, "Tyler Lockwood was a gentleman?" Elena questioned, seemingly in disbelief.
Bonnie added to the query, "Tyler Lockwood, who's known for the classy way her treats women?"
Caroline turned slightly pink and nodded, "I've never seen him this way. I swear he's changed."
"I hope he has," Bonnie said menacingly, "or else he'll have me to deal with."
The girls giggled as they sipped their drink.
Bonnie took the pause in conversation to direct the conversation to Elena. Caroline rolled her eyes, she wasn't quite finished telling them all the details of Tyler, but she did want to know the juicy details. She decided to join Bonnie in the questioning,
"If you're just friends, as you claim, why the hell did you turn up to school in his shirt?" she asked.
Elena blushed, looking down and mumbling as she stared at her drink, "I slept over at the boarding house."
"Sooo, you slept with him?" Caroline probed further. She knew from experience that Damon was the kind of guy to get into bed fast.
"No!" Elena said, but Bonnie gave her some serious side-eye, causing her to add on, "Well, technically we slept in the same bed. But I was fully dressed on top of the covers!"
Well, that was boring. But actually, really sweet. Caroline couldn't imagine Damon just sleeping next to anyone, he always had the swagger of a 'Sex God' and something as caring and romantic as just sleeping didn't seem like him. Maybe he was different when he was with Elena. Trying to picture the scene, get a sense of his change in character, Caroline noticed a detail.
"You were dressed, but was he?" She teased, already knowing the answer from the ridiculous blush forming on Elena's cheeks.
"Who in their right mind sleeps with clothes on?" He almost purred from behind her, causing all three of the girls to jump. Damon took a seat next to Elena, causing her to scootch across the bench.
Caroline couldn't help but notice the way he gently kissed Elena on the cheek in greeting and threw an arm casually around the back of her cushioned seat. It was affectionate without being romantic, cloying. They definitely weren't just friends, but he also wasn't acting how Caroline had expected.
"So," he started, eyes only on Elena, "have you updated your besties on tonight's events?"
Elena's eyes widened for a moment, before she managed to shake her head and mumble an answer.
"My birth mom has asked to meet me here, tonight."
Caroline almost choked on her drink. She remembered the day Elena had told them both she was adopted. It had been a long day at school, hushed conversations between classes, and some tears had been involved. She'd said though that she had no idea where her birth mother was.
"Isobel?" Bonnie asked, obvious fear in her eyes. Bonnie must know more of the story, Caroline thought, for her to be so obviously concerned for her friend.
Elena nodded solemnly.
"She'll be here soon, and I'm going to speak to her alone." Elena's voice was weak but her expression held strong. Her friend was a fighter.
Caroline noticed Damon's arm was now around Elena's shoulder, pulling her closer to him. That was more the behaviour she was expecting. Not a couple, her ass.
"If you guys want to stick around or hang out after, I'd appreciate it." She added, giving a weak smile.
Caroline clicked who Elena was looking for at the door, and sighed a breath of relief that it wasn't Stefan.
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As the time grew closer to meet Isobel, Elena moved to a two-seater table closer to the bar.
It had been decided earlier, in an impromptu back-room meeting, that Damon and Alaric would stay sat at the bar. Isobel would expect them to be close anyway, and whilst Elena likely didn't need the protection in a public place neither would back down from being in the room.
Isobel wouldn't expect Bree or Bonnie, probably, depending on her level of research. Both Damon and Ric had testified to her that her birth mother was a diligent researcher, especially in the paranormal of Mystic Falls. She could potentially know of the Bennett witch line, but the chances she'd expect both Bonnie and Bree were minimal.
Caroline was the weak link, the innocent. Damon had wanted to compel her to go home, but Elena had refused to mess with her mind. She trusted they could protect her, and they should protect Caroline as well- along with every other innocent person in the grill that night. She'd been able to get both Ric and Bree to promise to save Caroline if needed. Damon had refused, his lips pursing when she'd begged. The way he'd told her that he would always, always, save her first had made her legs feel like jelly.
God, she hoped Isobel wouldn't be evil enough to hurt anyone.
Looking up to the opening doors, her first look at her birth mother made her instantly wary the hairs on the back of her neck standing up.
Her long, dark straight hair resembled Elena's but a shade darker, and there was a fire in her piercing stare that Elena intuitively recognised. But there was a stillness to her face, despite her eyes darting around to survey the scene. Isobel felt like a predator, more than Damon, Stefan, Anna or Pearl ever had. As Isobel's eyes landed on Elena, she felt like the prey. Her instincts were screaming at her to run, but instead she met the vampire's eyes.
This hunter was her mother. The woman who birthed her. She could hear her own heartbeat in her ears as she watched Isobel entering the grill. How had she given up her child, had she loved Elena or regretted her? Had she imagined Elena growing up, did she still now? Damon and Alaric had both warned that Isobel most certainly wasn't looking for mother-daughter bonding, but Elena had to admit to herself that until the moment she saw Isobel she was hoping they were wrong.
She wanted to know her birth mother, she realised. She wanted her approval.
The bitter disappointment she knew was coming was like bile in her throat, but she swallowed it down as she watched Isobel take a seat across from her, carefully folding her obviously designer coat as she did so.
"Hello, Elena." Isobel paused; sat demurely, she looked the absolute picture of elegance- the kind of woman any teenage girl would dream to be. Unless you looked closer, then her fierceness was evident. "You look just like her. It's eerie."
"You've met Katherine?" That couldn't be good. The Katherine that Damon had described was manipulative, selfish, and downright cruel. She'd left Damon to pine for her and attempt a rescue, despite being free to find him whenever she pleased. Elena hoped her mother wasn't too similar to their ancestor.
"She found me after I turned. Genetic curiosity, I suppose. She would be fascinated by you."
The way Isobel scrutinised her appearance, made Elena feel like a piece of meat. Not the way the drunken older men that sometimes inhabited the grill did, but like a literal piece of meat- food to be consumed.
She refused to be intimidated by Isobel. The mention of Katherine had shaken her, but she'd decided weeks ago that if she ever met Katherine, she'd be greeting her with a backhand- ancient vampire or not. Isobel wasn't going to scare her. Convincing herself to be the lion, not the mouse, taking the opening she asked, "Speaking of genetic curiosity, is John my father?"
"Yes."
She'd expected the answer, but for it to come disguised or alluded to- not bluntly put. It made her gasp, Isobel's eyes twitching to the bar. Damon must have responded to her shock.
"Why Damon?" Her mother asked, "I know why I chose him, but I don't get why you did."
The image of her mother and Damon briefly crossed her mind, and she was brought back to the night she found out. Strangely, instead of feeling sick she remembered tracing the lines on Damon's hand. She remembered how at the time, she was madder about catching him in the back room with Bree.
"I'm sure my reasons were better than yours, Isobel." She met her mother's gaze firmly.
"Probably," her mother replied nonchalantly, "I did just want his blood."
"Why did you turn?" Elena couldn't stop herself asking, the part of her that so desperately wanted to know her birth mother needed to know.
"For many reasons, some of which I'm sure you've considered." Isobel said, her eyes straying over Elena's shoulder to the bar again.
Elena shook her head. It was silly really, the denial. Her mother called her out on it straight away, "That was your first lie. It's inevitable, isn't it? You're going to get older, they won't."
Elena gulped. She was acutely aware that Damon could hear every word, and they were still on tentative ground. She'd pushed him away after what she now referred to as the quarry incident, and then he'd tried to push her away at college. She still didn't know why. She stayed silent, her eyes dipping to her drink for the first time- a sign of weakness she knew she shouldn't be admitting to this predator.
"When did you fall in love with him?" The vampire opposite her crooned, obviously trying to initiate a reaction out of either Elena or Damon- maybe both, "Or had only Stefan had that honour?"
Elena refused to answer. The sound of wood scraping against the floor near the bar probably meant that wasn't Damon's reaction.
"Hmm, that's what I thought. The eerie similarities with Katherine continue."
Elena saw red. Standing up, she placed her fists down on the table, leaning over her mother.
"You don't know me, and you obviously don't want to know me." She spat venomously towards the vampire, "Never, ever, compare me to Katherine. I am not her."
Isobel stood, gracefully and casually lifting her folded coat and putting it on. She showed no signs of being even slightly rattled by Elena's outburst, and Elena had to admit the lack of reaction was more terrifying than any action would have been. Deciding enough was enough, Elena decided to make a swift exit. As she tried to move past Isobel, her mother's strong, perfectly manicured fingers grabbed her hand. Elena winced as Isobel firmly held her injured arm- the brace not effective against any sign of vampiric strength.
"I want what your father wants, Jonathan Gilbert's invention. I've done my research; I know Damon has it." Isobel looked like she was whispering a pleasant goodbye to Elena, to any stranger, but her tone was threatening.
As she stepped back to leave, she gave Elena a huge smile. Elena was reminded of her own smile, which made it almost more menacing when through the smile her mother added, "Bring it to me, or the blood will be on your hands."
Watching her mother walk away, that sense of disappointment Elena had felt earlier rose to the surface as tears.
Stood, in the middle of the grill, she thought of all the ways this could have ended. Her mother, a teenager at the time, had given her to a loving, caring adoptive family. Hell, to her biological aunt and uncle. She'd then gone on to become a professor; she'd clearly been intelligent and driven and Elena had had a good life. If she hadn't been a vampire, how positive could their meeting have been? They could have shared successes, she could have been a role model. Elena let Bonnie and Caroline come to her, carefully guiding her back to the booth as she thought of the mother and daughter shopping trips they could have had, the exquisite taste in fashion her birth mother obviously had. She grieved the loss of the parent she had hoped for as she sat there in the booth.
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He should have stayed. Dammit, he knew the moment he left that his place should be by her side. He should be there, holding her, healing her hand. He should be the good guy in her story because she deserved one.
Instead, he was at the empty foreclosure he'd scoped out earlier.
He was waiting.
Elena had been magnificent. She'd burnt with the light of a supernova when she'd stood up to Isobel. He'd worried, almost intervened at one point- she'd seemed too small and young. But then she'd shown her fury and her power, and it had been magnificent.
Now it was his turn. He'd made Isobel, and she would have to pay for her crimes.
When he'd arrived, Isobel's compelled companion was wandering around in her underwear. Months ago, he wouldn't have minded. Hell, he'd have probably greeted Isobel from her own bed- indulging in her human treats as she had. Now, well he'd chosen to compel the girl to go back to her hometown and her life. He didn't even really know why; he didn't give a crap about her and she was probably having way more fun living in a luxury house in designer underwear.
It would piss Isobel off, maybe that was why.
"How did you find me Damon; I know you weren't following me." Elena's birth mother had entered the house.
Damon sped to her, leaning against the door frame; his eyes looking down to meet hers. "I found you earlier, just looked for the most expensive foreclosure and lo and behold, there you were".
"I should have known; you were the one that taught me that." Well, at least the bitch admitted her mistakes.
"Did you bring the device?" She asked, sauntering away from him as if his threatening stance was nothing.
He laughed; she couldn't think it was that easy. "What do you want with the invention?"
"Me? Nothing." She said innocently, "I'm just doing what I'm told. You know, we're on the same side."
"Uh-huh," He raised an eyebrow at her, his tone clearly annoyed with her games, "And whose side is that?"
"Katherine's" He froze. He'd been royally pissed earlier when she'd brought Katherine up, especially when she'd compared Elena to the world's biggest bitch. The two were nothing alike, their appearance may be similar, but their personalities were worlds apart- even their mannerisms, their quirks. Elena was not Katherine.
Katherine was clearly a manipulative bitch, and he didn't want her anywhere near him, this town and most definitely not near Elena.
"Katherine wants the invention. John failed, now I'm here. You know Katherine always gets what she wants."
"Why are you doing her dirty work?" It made sense for her to be working with John, almost. Sure, she seemed like her humanity was a distant memory to her- but some connections could get through. The man she had a child with- maybe there was something, some small tendril of love able to penetrate the barrier. He would have said it was perhaps her love for Elena if she hadn't made such a show of hurting her earlier.
Working with Katherine though? What could be her motivation?
Isobel merely shrugged at him, "Don't kill the messenger."
Now that was a mighty fine idea, except for the fact that he'd already had to apologise to Elena once for killing her mother. Luckily, vampires healed.
He was significantly older and stronger than Isobel, and she wasn't expecting him. He had her pinned to the floor before he could expect it.
"You do not come into this town; threaten people I care about. Going after Elena? Terrible move. I will rip you to bits and watch her hate me, rather than see her harmed. Because I do believe in killing the messenger. You know why?"
He didn't wait for a response before snapping her neck.
"It sends a message." He said to nobody in particular. Laughing at his own wit, he decided to go for the dramatic flair. Scribbling a note with the same words, he folded it and placed it in Isobel's hand. She would hopefully appreciate the theatre- Katherine certainly would.
x-x-x-x
Ric had been very apologetic, driving her home from the Grill. He had no idea where Damon had gone, and Elena was quite frankly sick of him disappearing at the most important times.
She was refusing to chase after him this time.
Today was hard enough, and if he was going to have a meltdown because she had met her birth mother, well then quite frankly he didn't deserve her.
Ric must have given Jenna a heads up, because when she arrived back Jenna pulled her into a bear hug and didn't let go until Elena called a time out for some air. After a teary explanation, she'd been allowed to bed. Ric was staying over, so Elena closed her bedroom door- she really didn't want a repeat of the bedroom incident- and lent against it.
She could do this.
Sure, she'd met Isobel and she'd turned out to be a heartless bitch. That didn't mean that was what Elena would be like. Yes, she was genetically related to Isobel, but she'd been raised by Miranda and Grayson. Even if one day she did become a vampire, she would be a vampire like Damon or Stefan- she could never be what Isobel is.
Could she?
Shuddering at the thought, she decided to distract herself. She had a ton of homework, so she headed to her desk, but the manilla folders there distracted her from her thoughts of scholarly pursuits.
Those were the folders they'd taken from her dad's clinic. She hadn't looked at them since, too preoccupied with Damon and then Isobel. Taking them to her bed and sitting cross-legged on the duvet as she examined them, Elena carefully began to read.
She was so engrossed in the files; she didn't notice when the window opened and he entered. She had no idea how long she'd been sitting there watching her, when she heard his voice from the window seat. Amazingly, she didn't jump at the sound- instead feeling calmer than she had in hours.
"I snapped your mother's neck again." His voice tried to sound sarcastic, slightly bitter even, but there was an undercurrent of a question; would he be forgiven?
"Good." She said, emphatically. He didn't need forgiveness, right now she hated Isobel and everything she represented. Plus, he hadn't staked her; vampires healed from a broken neck.
"She's working with Katherine." He added. That did cause her resolve to wobble, she remembered how she'd felt seeing him with Bree. Could she bare it if he went back to Katherine.
"That means she knows where she is, you can find her." She turned to give him what she hoped was an encouraging smile, but she knew was probably a weak one. It didn't reach her eyes.
Before she knew it, he was sat behind her, one arm around her waist.
"If I wanted to find Katherine, I could. I haven't wanted to. I won't want to." He muttered, his breath dangerously close to her ear. She was still stiff, not fully believing his words.
"You loved her for 150 years, Damon. It's okay if you want to find her." She couldn't be his barrier, could she? Elena knew there was no way she ever wanted to be the reason he wasn't happy.
"I don't want to. When will you believe that?" He probed, more insistent. His voice was showing worry.
"Maybe in 300 years." She said, offhandedly.
They both stopped moving at the words, his thumb had been absent-mindedly stroking her side and it abruptly stilled- she felt like she stopped breathing. She'd thought it to herself- more than a handful of times now; if she let herself love him it would be forever. This was the first time she'd ever voiced that thought out loud- and what a time to do it. They'd kissed and argued and held each other through a thousand emotions, but they weren't together.
Hell, he'd spoken about living in a city in a couple of years and she'd exploded.
Now she was talking about centuries.
What the hell was wrong with her?
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