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FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
GOOD MEN




"Hey, Bonnie, it's me." Elena greeted Bonnie's voicemail for about the millionth time. "Just checking in, seeing how you're doing. We miss you here. Don't let your Aunt drive you too crazy." We both suddenly heard footsteps moving across the porch, looking up we saw Jenna. "Come home soon. Love you."

Elena hung up her phone and let her hand fall limp into her lap, as I continued to rock up back and forth on the wooden porch swing.

"What are you doing out here?" Jenna asked, gripping her coffee cup. "It's cold."

"Thinking," I replied, shrugging my shoulders.

"Writing," Elena said, gesturing to her open journal lying in her lap. "The, uh, funeral for Bonnie's grandma it brought back a lot about Mom and Dad."

My head slowly bobbed in agreement. The sad and painful memories slowly overwhelming me at that moment. I bit my lip in attempt to fight away the tears that were threatening to fall.

"I was wondering, you said that you would do some digging about them. The adoption?" I said, successfully breaking the awkward silence that had developed around us. "So did you...dig?"

"Come on inside," Jenna replied, motioning with her head toward the door.

Elena and I stood from the porch swing and followed our Aunt into the house. We followed her all the way into the kitchen where Jenna sat down in front of her open laptop, while Elena and I stood behind her to get a better look at the screen.

"Your dad kept everything from his medical practice. Records, logs, old appointment books." Jenna said, pulling a green spiral out of her bag. "I found an entry from the night you two were born. Patient and a birthdate. Isobel Peterson."

Elektra Peterson; that didn't sound too appealing.

I scrunched up my nose at the name and asked: "Do you think that's her real name?"

"Pregnant teenage runaway?" Jenna asked.
"Probably not. First name maybe, but where'd she get Peterson? A classmate? Best friend? I Googled it. I searched for all Petersons in this area born the same year as Isobel." Jenna explained, typing on her computer to pull up the results to show us. "Found three, two men and a woman, Trudie, who lived in Grove Hill, Virginia." Jenna told us, smiling at our amazed facial expressions.

"That's not far from here," Elena announced, grinning cheekily. I nodded in return, not being able to form words at the moment.

"Well, watch this." Jenna said, typing in "Grove Hill High School" then hit search and pulled up the school website.

Jenna clicked on a picture from the year Isobel would have went to school there. The picture contained two cheerleaders looking directly at the camera with slight grins. The one on the right had short blonde hair and bright blue eyes, while the one on the left had long black hair and eyes just as dark.

"Isobel," I faintly whispered, finally finding my voice.

"She was a cheerleader," Elena said. Jenna and I chuckled at Elena's fascination.

"Trudie still lives there." Jenna told us, grabbing a yellow sticky-note and writing something down on it. "This is her address."

"What about Isobel?"

"I couldn't find anything about her." Jenna replied, her tone turning upset. "Listen, there's something else. Mr. Saltzman - Ric? His wife was from around here. And her name was also Isobel."

I stood there, staring blankly down at Jenna. "Was?" I repeated. "As in...?"

"She died."

✥ ✥ ✥

"Alaric's wife might have been y'all's mother?" Stefan asked us skeptically.

I didn't blame him for being skeptical. The idea of Alaric's wife being our mother was a bit farfetched and hard for me to believe, but I didn't bring it up because of Elena. She wants to believe that Isobel is alive and well, and that we'll be able to reconnect with her somehow.

"It can't be true, right?" Elena sighed, stuffing clothes into her dresser. "I mean, the coincidence alone is just crazy."

I fumbled with the yellow sticky-note in my hands before speaking: "Yeah, but, we do have the address for that girl named Trudie. Who supposedly was Isobel's best friend in high school."

Stefan crossed his arms over his chest. "You guys want to talk to her?"

"I don't know. I-" I began, but cut myself off and let out a sigh. "I - I don't know. If it's true, and they are the same person that means that our birth mother is dead. And I don't know if we could handle that."

"Did Jenna tell you two anything about Alaric's wife?" Stefan asked, stepping closer to us. "How she died?"

"Just that she was killed and the case was never solved."

Stefan nodded his head slowly and let his eyes fall to the floor.

"You knew that already?" I asked, but the question came out more like a statement than a question. I knew the answer. He knew that Isobel had been killed.

Stefan swallowed thickly. "The night at the school when he attacked me, he told me some things about her death."

"Well-"

"No, no, no." Stefan said quickly, taking each of our hands into his own. "It's not possible. The coincidences. It's too much. Listen, if you two decide to go talk to Isobel's friend, I'll go with you. Yeah?"

"I just don't know what we're going to do yet," Elena replied, as I nodded.

Stefan pulled Elena and I into a hug. I awkwardly wrapped my left arm around his torso as his right one snaked around my shoulders. It's not that hugging him was awkward, just hugging him with my sister - his girlfriend - right next to me when I know that deep down inside me I had unrequited feelings for her boyfriend.

Ugh, I'm a terrible sister.

Stefan pulled away from us with a sadden expression etched on his features. "I should get going. I've got to go deal with Damon."

"How's he doing?" Elena asked, stealing a glance my way.

"He's dealing, in his own way," Stefan answered.

✥ ✥ ✥

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked, looking over at Elena. She was fumbling with the sticky-note as we made our way up Trudie Peterson's porch steps to her front door.

Elena curtly nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure. I just need some answers." She then reached out to the door and used the brass-knocked and gently tapped on the door.

I stuffed my hands into my jacket pockets. In all honestly, I would rather be anywhere else other than here. I didn't want to know the true about Isobel like Elena did. I mean, I know it's important to know about our biological mother, but I already had a mother. And she was buried in Mystic Falls Cemetery, next to my father.

The longer I thought about Isobel the less and less I cared for her. She didn't even attempt to be in mine or Elena's life, and she fell off the face of the earth after handing us off to our Mom and Dad. It just made me angry. How could someone do that to their own children?

The door opened to reveal a woman in her mid-thirties. She had long blonde wavy hair that was draped over her shoulders. She looked almost exactly like she did in the picture, but more mature and aged.

"Trudie? Tru - Trudie Peterson?" Elena stumbled with her words, her anxiety getting the best of her.

The lady smiled, "Yes?"

"Uh, my name is Elena Gilbert and this is my sister Elektra Gilbert." Elena announced. "We, uh, wanted to talk to you about Isobel Flemming."

"Well, I haven't heard that name in years." Trudie said, looking between Elena and I. "How do you know her?"

"We think that, um, well...how do I put this?" Elena muttered out loud, glancing at me for help.

I smiled softly. "Do you know if she had twins that she gave up for adoption?" I asked Trudie cautiously. Elena sent me a thankful smile before turning her attention back to the woman in front of us.

Trudie's eyes widened in shock, "Oh, my God. You're her daughters." Trudie said, letting out a lighthearted laugh. "I was just going to make some tea. Would you two like some?"

Elena and I exchanged a glance.

"Sure." Elena said.

"Yeah, we'd love to."

"The kitchen's this way." Trudie said, motioning behind her. I nodded and slowly took a step inside her home as Elena followed.

"We weren't going to come." Elena announced, lacing her fingers together in anticipation. "But we were driving and we hit this stoplight and it made me think about when I was learning how to drive and my mom would always warn me about this blind turn on the left hand-side and then I was thinking about my mom and - " Elena babbled.

"We had your address. I'm sorry for barging in." I apologized, seeing as though Elena was practically shaking next to me.

"It's no problem," Trudie said, shrugging it off as she motioned for us to sit down at the dining room table. "Um, just a surprise, though. I haven't thought about Isobel in years."

Elena leaned closer to the table. "When was the last time you saw her?"

"About seventeen years ago, when she left to go have you two," Trudie answered, smiling. "We kept in touch for a while, but, well, you know, people drift apart."

"And you don't know where she ended up?" Elena asked, as I kept quiet, examining my nails since Trudie seemed a little bit like a ditz, who wouldn't tell us anything of actual importance.

"She was in Florida for a while." Trudie told us, or mostly Elena, "She was on her own. I know it wasn't easy."

"Do you have any idea who our father is?" I spoke up for the first time.

Trudie stared at me blankly before she answered: "I could never get her to fess up." She admitted, "Anyway, she finally pulled it together. She got into college on a scholarship."

"Where did she go?" I questioned, keeping my voice even and emotionless as Elena smiled brightly.

"Somewhere in North Carolina." Trudie replied. "Duke, I think. Smart girl, smart school."

Just then I heard the high pitched squeal of the tea kettle. In the other room, I raised an eyebrow at our new acquaintance.

"Let me just grab that." Trudie said, excusing herself as she got up.

I looked to Elena and smirked, as she sent me an annoyed look. "What?" I asked innocently.

"You could at least act more interested. This is about our birth mother and you're just sitting there looking at your nails." Elena scolded me as if I were still a child.

I rolled my eyes, "Elena, she doesn't know anything."

"Yes, she does." Elena protested, "She is telling us about the type of person our mother used to be."

"Yes, used to be. And anyways, she isn't my mother. My mother is dead and buried in the Mystic Falls Cemetery." I snapped. Elena just kept quiet and stared at the table as she nodded slightly - she knew that my words were true.




Trudie chuckled, as the three of us flipped through her high school yearbook. We were currently looking at the same cheerleading photo that Jenna had showed us earlier.

"They came to the games for us. The football team hadn't won in years. We were the stars. Well, Izzy was. But I was a damn good backup."

Elena giggled and said: "This is great. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Suddenly, I felt Elena nudge me with her elbow underneath the table. I winced as her elbow wedged its way into my ribs. I cleared my throat, looking up to the blonde who was waiting for me to speak.

"Thanks," I muttered.

"You haven't touched your tea," Trudie changed the subject, staring at our full tea cups that were getting colder by the minute. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Why did she want us to drink the tea so bad?

"Oh, yeah," Elena mumbled, raising her cup and taking a sip.

"What about you?" Trudie asked, her eyes becoming hard as she surveyed my every move.

"What about me?"

"You haven't taken a drink." Trudie replied. "Not even a sip."

"Yeah, well, I'm not really that thirsty." I said, sending her a small smile, but her stare didn't seem to soften. Not even the slightest bit.

Elena just set her cup down and turned to me, "Just take a sip. It's really not bad."

"I don't like tea." I answered.

"Since when?" Elena questioned me, raising a brow.

I pursed my lips, "Since always."

"Just try it." Elena pushed.

I sighed and brought the glass to my lips and only sniffed it. I looked to Trudie to see that she looked worried. "What kind of tea is this?" I asked, still smelling it, already knowing the answer. If she wanted to accuse me of something then I would play along.

"Just some herbal mixture," Trudie replied, quickly getting more and shakier by the second.

"Vervain?" I asked, quirking up an eyebrow. Trudie didn't answer, but only scooted back in her seat. "You know."

"Know what?" Trudie asked innocently.

Elena turned to me, "What do you mean?"

"You didn't invite us in, and you're serving vervain tea. You know." I claried.

"I think that you two should probably leave." Trudie said quickly, standing. Elena and I did the same.

"Wait," I said, raising my hand to stop her.
"What are you not telling us?"

"Please leave." Trudie pushed. "Now."

Elena slowly grabbed her jacket off of the back of the chair, simply staring at Trudie. I grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the house and toward the car.

Elena struggled to get her keys out of her bag, but quickly yanked them out when we saw a man standing in the middle of the road staring at us.

✥ ✥ ✥

"Stefan?" I called out, walking further into Stefan's bedroom.

"Better," I heard Damon say. "Me."

I turned around toward the voice and saw Damon walking out of the bathroom - shirtless - toward me. He was wearing black jeans, belt, and black boots.

"You look, um-" I began, racking my brain for the right word to say in this situation.

"Dashing? Gorgeous?" Damon pondered, towering over me, his face inches from mine. "Irresistible?"

I shook my head at how conceited he was. I took a couple of steps backward. "Wrecked. You look wrecked."

Damon shrugged. "No reason why. Do you know that I am one of Mystic Falls' most eligible bachelors?"

"Huh," I breathed out, pursing my lips.

"Yep."

"How are you doing?"

Damon slowly turned away from me and started to walk over to the full-length mirror that was leaning against the wall. "Never better," Damon said, putting on a black button up shirt. "What can I do for you? I'm a barrel of favors today. It's my new found purpose. How can I help people?"

"I'm just meeting Stefan and Elena. We're going to the fundraiser." I answered, watching Damon button up his shirt, pathetically struggling, might I add.

"You know, you could've gone with me." Damon added. "Since we are friends."

I nodded and crossed my arms over my chest. "That we are, but seeing as though you are an eligible bachelor, we wouldn't want the women to think that you were in fact ineligible, now would we?"

"So?" Damon responded, shrugging his shoulders. "Who cares. For you, Elektra, I would make an exception."

I felt my neck and cheeks heat up at his comment. Damon then turned around to face me, with only one button done on his shirt. I chuckled and shook my head at him not be able to button up his shirt properly.

"Help a guy out, will you?" Damon asked.
"I can't get this..." Damon muttered, still trying to button the shirt.

I sighed, making my way over to him and stood promptly in front of him. I grabbed the button from his grasp before grasping the other side and began to button it up.

Damon was staring down at me, his icy gaze burning holes in my face as he watched my every move as if he were searching for the answer to an unvoiced question. And the answer was somehow hidden in the recesses of my features.

"Guess what," I said, starting up a conversation.

Damon chuckled lightly, "What?"

"Elena and I found out who our birth mother is."

"Ugh," Damon gagged. "Who cares?" My face fell at his comment. Damon lowered his face closer to mine. "She left you. She sucks."

I opened my mouth to reply, but I heard footsteps approaching which caused me to cease my button and look toward the doorway. There stood Elena and Stefan, who then began to move closer to me.

I tucked my hair behind my ears. "Hey, Stefan, Elena. There you guys are." I greeted, walking away from Damon and stood next to Stefan.

"Hey," Stefan replied, smiling down at me.

"Uh, I need a bigger jacket." Damon muttered, I turned to see Damon struggling to take off a jacket that probably wasn't too small in the first place. "Wow. You know, an occasional sorority girl might, um, you know, fill you out a little bit." Damon said, walking passed us and exiting Stefan's bedroom.

"He's fine?" I mocked, looking up at Stefan.

"He's Damon."

"Maybe this heartache will be good for him. It'll remind him that he has one, even if it doesn't beat." Elena snidely ranted.

"Won't hold my breath," came Stefan's response.

"So, we went to see Trudie Peterson." I announced. Stefan's brows furrowed. "I know. I'm sorry. We didn't plan it."

"How was it?"

"She has vervain. She knows about vampires, Stefan. It can't be a coincidence." I added.

"It isn't," Stefan replied, pulling out a folded picture of Isobel. "This is Alaric's wife."

"This is her."

"This is Isobel." I confirmed, taking the picture in my hands. "He gave this to you?"

Stefan gave me a short nod of his head in response. "Everything he knows about vampires, he learned from her. He believes that she was killed by one."

"Oh, my God," Elena whispered in utter shock.

"Listen, there's a lot about Isobel that Alaric can tell you, but I need you guys to hold off a little while before you talk to him." Stefan warned us.

I nodded and said: "Fine with me."

"Why?" Elena asked, confused.

"I know it's a lot to ask of you, but will you do that for me?" Stefan asked softly.

Elena nodded.

✥ ✥ ✥

"Tickets for the raffle are now on sale. All proceeds benefit the annual Founder's Day Celebration." Carol Lockwood announced, as she stood on the stage, speaking into the microphone.

I smiled and turned back to Matt, Caroline, and Elena. Caroline was selling the raffle tickets and Matt was working but thankfully he found time to talk to us.

"Matt has been hit on like thirty-five times. He's total cougar bait." Caroline explained to Elena and I as Matt blushed slightly.

"Wow, Mattie, it seems like you're a real looker." I commented, sending him a wink and he chuckled. I reached out and pinched his cheeks playfully; he slapped my hands away.

Elena nodded, "Impressive."

"More like embarrassing," Matt corrected, smiling cheekily at us.

"Hi, Mrs. Donovan," Caroline said suddenly. I turned around to see Kelly Donovan standing there, smiling a bittersweet smile back at Caroline.

"Elena, honey," Kelly greeted, turning to Elena and engulfing her in a hug.

Elena smiled sweetly and hugged back. "Hey, Kelly."

When the two of them released each other, Kelly glanced over at me and smiled. I never understood it, but she always really like Elena and I - for as long as I can remember she treated us like we were her own family.

"Elektra, you look very beautiful." Kelly complemented.

"Thank you," I replied, giving her a quick hug. "You look good, too."

"Kiss ass," Kelly added, turning to Elena and said: "Mattie says you broke his heart."

Elena's face instantly fell.

"Mom," Matt groaned in a warning tone.

"Just kidding. Calm down." Kelly said, brushing it off. "He found his rebound girl." She whispered to Elena and I, referring to Caroline. "Well, here you go, sweetheart." Kelly said, handing Caroline the money for the ticket. "However many that'll buy. I just hope I don't get Bachelor 3. Dated him in high school. Not impressive, in any way."

Caroline handed her a small number of tickets.

"Very exciting." And then she walked away from us smiling brightly.




After the awkward and nerve racking conversation with Kelly Donovan, I decided to go ahead and take my seat with Jenna and Elena at our reserved table. Jenna was twirling her glass of wine, while I was running my fingers through the condensation on my glass of water.

"And what do you do, Bachelor Number 3?" Carol Lockwood asked.

"Yeah, I'm a plumber." He replied.

"Well, isn't that wonderful? We could always use more plumbers." Carol said. "Moving on. Bachelor Number 4, Alaric Saltzman. Wow, that's quite a mouthful. What do you do, Alaric?"

"I'm a teacher at Mystic Falls High." Alaric answered into the microphone.

"Oh, beauty and brains, ladies. This one's a keeper." Carol said, winking at the audience. "What do you teach?"

"History."

"History," Carol repeated. "Oh, well, give us a fun fact about Mystic Falls. Something crazy,"

Alaric stood there awkwardly. I couldn't help but laugh at the situation, and the look on Jenna's face made me laugh even more. "Um, well..." he trailed off.

"He's probably saving the best stories for his date." Carol said, saving Alaric from further embarrassment. "And last, but certainly, Damon Salvatore. We don't have much on you."

"Well, I'm tough to fit on a card." Damon smirked.

I suddenly caught Stefan's eyes in the crowd and I happily waved in greetings. Stefan smiled and waved back. Damon noticed this, and he glared at Stefan from the stage.

"Do you have any hobbies? Like to travel?" Carol asked, trying to get some sort of incite on Damon's past.

Damon's previous glare quickly faded into a grin. "Oh, yeah. L.A., New York. Couple years ago I was in North Carolina. Near the Duke campus, actually. I think Alaric went to school there. Didn't you, Rick?" Damon asked, turning to look at Alaric. "Yeah, because I know your wife did. I had a drink with her once. She was, phew. She was a great girl. Did I ever tell you that? Because she was...delicious."

I don't know why, but the sudden urge to cry came rushing to my surface. My heart was thrumming in my chest, and to think I was actually beginning to like him, to feel sorry for him - I had wanted to be his friend.

I quickly stood up from the table.

"Are you okay?" Jenna asked.

"I just need some air." I replied, my voice cracking.

I shoved my way through the crowd until I was finally out of the Grill, allowing the crisp night air to engulf my whole body. I bent over, placing my hands on my knees as my stomach churned restlessly.

"Elektra," A voice called out, I stood up right and turned. Stefan and Elena were standing there with concerned looks upon their faces.

"He killed her? Damon was the vampire that killed her?"

"I don't know what happened. Alaric said that they never found the body."

"Oh, my God." I whispered. "Stefan."

"Elektra, I'm sorry. I wanted to tell you, but I just - I wanted to know more." Stefan said, reaching out and grasping my upper arm softly.

Elena threw her hands to her side angrily. "I was feeling sorry for him, hoping that this whole Beatrice and Katherine thing would change him."

I shook my head. "I'm so stupid."

"No, you're not." Elena said, tears in her eyes.

"He doesn't know about the connection that you two share with Isobel." Stefan admitted. "I thought about confronting him, but-"

"Why are you protecting him?" I asked through clenched teeth, using the same words he used on me a few weeks ago.

"Because you're not the only one hoping that he might actually change," Stefan replied.

I shook my head, looking over Stefan's shoulder. My eyes widened when someone caught my eye. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"That man." I whispered, causing Stefan to turn and look at him. "I saw that man outside of Trudie's."

"Get back inside." Stefan said, pushing us softly. "Come on."

Elena and I walked back in side by side after we had our angry rant with Stefan. I wasn't paying too much attention and I ran right into a hard wall. My head snapped back and I was about to fall backwards when two strong arms caught me, causing me to look up, and as I did my brown eyes met two blue ones.

"Whoa! Easy there, buy a ticket like everyone else." Damon said smirking at me sending me a hidden wink,

"Did you enjoy that? Rubbing that into Alaric Saltzman?" I asked, not bothering to hide my distaste.

"What?" Damon asked, confused.

"Just when I was beginning to think there was something redeemable about you."

"Elektra," Stefan warned, placing a soft hand on my back.

Damon glanced between Stefan and I before asking: "Am I missing something here?"

"Did I forget to mention earlier when we were talking about my birth mother, the one that gave me up?" I jogged his memory, my voice getting icier with every word.

"Mm-hmm," Damon hummed.

"Her name was Isobel," I said, letting the venom drip off my words as I felt my heart being pulled in two different directions. Damon's face fell at my words. "So go ahead. Reminisce about how you killed her."

I went to turn around but was caught by a large hand around my wrist, causing me to turn sharply around and look at him.

"Elektra, I'm sorry, I didn't know-"

"Damon, just save it for another day, I'm not in the mood." I said softly as I turned my back on him, feeling his eyes burn holes into my back.

I felt warm liquid run down my cheek and I wiped it quickly. I walked back outside to see Elena and Stefan talking with that man. So I quickly ran to stand beside them, catching part of their conversation.

"You need to stop looking for her, do you understand?" The man asked blankly.

"She's alive?" Elena asked breathlessly.

The man asked again, "Do you understand?"

"Does that mean she's a-" I asked aloud.

"Elektra, Elena." Stefan said holding us back, "He's under compulsion."

"Do you understand?" the man asked once
more.

I nodded, "Yes, we do."

"Good." He said glancing at the street and then back to us, "I'm done now."

He took a small step back causing a truck, that hadn't seen him, collide into him full force. The truck rolled over him as I heard some bones snap and a groan of pain. The sound of the horn didn't even phase me as I watched the scene unfold.

Elena's scream brought me back to reality.

Elena, Stefan, and I ran into the street towards the crushed man who had not just seconds ago gave us information that mine and Elena's birth mother was still alive. Stefan crouched down beside him, and as did Elena and I.

Elena picked something up and stood up slowly, as she glanced around looking at the crowd of people around the scene.

"Elena, what is that?" I asked standing up as I noticed a cell phone in her hand that was unfamiliar to me.

"His cell phone." She breathed.

I nodded and Stefan stood up with his expression and eyes hard.

"Come on, let's get out of here." Stefan said, grabbing Elena and I by the arms as he pulled us along and away from the man in the street.

✥ ✥ ✥

not edited.

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