- A Few Good Men -

*AGE CHANGE FROM 12 to 14*

Emma sat on the counter in the kitchen with a granola bar in hand, thinking about the conversation she and Elena had two nights ago. She was told everything. And by everything, she meant every bit of details about what was happening in their lovely home town; from vervain to Elena being Kathrine's doppelganger. It blew her mind to find out there was a complete stranger, a vampire no less, wearing the same face as her sister. What was even crazier was that both Salvatore brothers were in love with Kathrine. Now, she wondered if past events were going to repeat themselves.

She shook her head at the thought. From what she learned, what happened before didn't lead to a happy ending.

"Hey." she greeted, Jenna and Elena making their way into the kitchen.

"Hi, Em." Elena said, embracing her in a side hug.

Jenna, carrying her laptop, went to the dining table and took a seat.

"What's going on?" the young girl asked, curiosity luring her over to the device.

"Well," Jenna began, typing rapidly on the keyboard. "Elena asked me to 'dig' stuff up about her adoption, so, I found this."

The sisters peered over their aunt's shoulder at the screen.

"What did you find?"

"Your dad kept everything from his medical practice; records, logs, old appointment books." Jenna pulled out a small leather journal from her book bag and opened it to a marked page. "I found an entry from the night you were born. Patient and a date." Jenna said, pointing to the entry.

Emma stared at the page, reading her father's inked words. She never knew he kept so much. If she had, she would've been studied all of the material until her eyes were bloodshot.

Elena looked at Jenna. "Do you think that's her real name?"

She shrugged, setting the journal down. "Probably not. First name, maybe. But where'd she get Peterson? Classmate? Best friend? So, I binged it." She turned back to the laptop and pulled up a window.

"Personally, I would have used Google." Emma said, making the others roll their eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Anyways, I searched for all the Peterson's in this area." Jenna typed in the last name. "Born in the same year as Isobel. Found 3: 2 men and a woman, Trudie, who lived in Grove Hill, Virginia."

"That's not far from here." Emma noted.

Jenna nodded.

"Yup. Watch this."

Jenna typed again and brought up a picture off a website. It was a shot of two teenage girls from the 90s wearing cheerleading outfits, arms draped around each other. The caption underneath it read, "Trudie Peterson and Isobel Flemming".

A smile formed on Elena's face. "Isobel." she breathed out. "She was a cheerleader."

"Like mother, like daughter." Emma said back, nudging her arm.

Jenna grabbed a sticky note and scribbled something down. "Trudie still lives at the same place. This is her address." She handed yellow square piece of paper to Elena.

"What about Isobel? Where's she?" Emma asked, reading the address on the note. The drive there wouldn't take too long.

Jenna stayed silent, avoiding eye contact with the girls. "I. . . couldn't find anything about her." she finally revealed.

Emma knew Elena was disappointed to hear that. It was one thing to find a possible close friend, but to come up with nothing about the person of interest was another.

"Listen, there's something else." Jenna announced, leaning closer to the two. "Mr. Saltzman, Ric, his wife was from around here, and her name was also Isobel."

"Whoa." Emma said, sneaking a glance at Elena's astounded expression.

Mr. Saltzmen was the history teacher at the school who happened to have a vast amount of knowledge about vampires. She never met him since he had just started that year, but from what she was told, he was not fond of vampires.

"But wait. What do you mean, 'was'?"

"She died."

Elena remained speechless. "I'm uh, going to go upstairs." she said, leaving the kitchen with her jacket and sticky note.

Emma followed right behind her. No one should be alone after hearing news like that.

"Elena," she said, entering her sister's room.

But the doppelganger didn't reply, only taking out her cellphone and dialing a number.

"Stefan, can you come over?" she said into the receiver.

Emma sat on Elena's bed once the call ended and watched her sister stand at her dresser, putting stuff away. They sat in heavy silence and in a matter of seconds, Stefan appeared in the room.

"Hey, what's wrong?" The vampire looking at the two.

Without turning around, Elena answered him. "Jenna did some research about my birth mom and found that Rick's wife had same name as her and lived around here."

Stefan's eyebrows drew together. "Alaric's wife might have been your mother?"

Elena sighed. "It can't true, right?" she said, "I mean, the coincidence alone is just crazy."

"There is a way to find out if it's true or not." Emma pointed out, nodding her head to the sticky note Elena held. "Jenna gave her the address to Isobel's old friend, Trudie."

"You wanna talk to her." he concluded.

Elena shrugged and went to hang her jacket. "I don't know. If it's true and they are the same person, that means that my birth mother is dead. And I don't know if I could handle that." She twiddled her hands.

"Elena," Stefan said, walking over to her and rubbed her arms. "Did Jenna tell you anything about Alaric's wife? How she died?"

Elena shook her head.

Emma thought it was strange of him to bring that up, much less ask about it. "Stefan, do you know something?"

He sighed after receiving an urging gaze from Elena. "The night at the school when he attacked me, he told me some things about her death."

"Well-"

"No, no. It's not possible." Stefan interrupted, grasping Elena's hands in his. "The coincidence is. . . it's too much. Now, listen, if you do decide to talk to Isobel's friend, I'll go with you. Okay?"

Elena nodded. "I just don't know what I'm gonna do yet."

The vampire pulled her into a hug, making Emma smile at the interaction. She was glad there was someone to make her sister happy with everything that was happening. He really cared for her.

Stefan broke away from the hug. "I should get going. I need to deal with Damon."

Emma perked up at the statement and found herself asking, "How's he doing?"

Stefan turned to her. "He's dealing in his own way."

She didn't need him to explain what he meant. She was able to develop a guess of Damon's 'activities'.

"Bye." With a quick kiss on Elena's lips, Stefan vanished.

Once he was gone, Emma looked to her sister. "Hey, Elena." she said. "Can I come? When you go?"

"I don't know. . ."

She clasped her hands together. "Please. I want to come. For you."

Elena let out a sigh. "Okay."

~♡~

"So this is the house?" Emma asked, standing beside Elena.

They stood in front of the supposed home belonging to Trudie Peterson. It was in a remote area; the distance between each home being more than a typical neighborhood.

Elena examined the sticky note again and then gaze at the house. "Yeah, same address on the note. Let's go."

They ascended up the steps of the porch, right up to the front door. Elena raised her hand to knock but withdrew it back.

"Hey," Emma said, putting a hand on the older girl's shoulder. "It's okay. You don't have to do this if you don't want to."

Elena nodded, closing her eyes for a moment before knocking. No one answered for a while, but the door opened to reveal a woman with blonde hair.

"Trudie? Trudie Peterson?" Emma asked the woman.

She nodded. Emma turned to Elena, tilting her head slightly toward Trudie.

Elena inhaled deeply. "Uh, my name is Elena Gilbert and this is my little sister, Emma. I wanted to talk to you about Isobel Flemming."

Trudie's face lit up at the name. "Well, I haven't heard that name in years. How do you know her?" she inquired.

Elena hesitated before answering. "I think that, um, well. . . Do you know if she had a baby that she gave up for adoption?"

The woman's expression changed slightly as she gasped. "My god. You're her daughter." she stated, letting out a breathless laugh. "I was just gonna make some tea. Would you two like some?"

The sisters smiled at each other.

"Sure." Emma responded.

"This kitchen's this way." Trudie said, moving aside for the two of them to enter.

She wasn't sure, but the young girl could have sworn she saw a flash of nervousness on Trudie's face as they walked past her to the dining room. Maybe she was imagining it.

"You know, I wasn't gonna come, I didn't think I was. But then last second I changed my mind, and I brought my sister to keep me from chickening out. I'm sorry for just barging in like this." Elena explained as Trudie disappeared to the kitchen.

"It's no problem! Please, sit." the woman offered, returning and gesturing to the seats at the table. "This is just a surprise, though. I haven't thought about Isobel in years." she said as they all sat down.

Elena leaned forward with her arms crossed on the table. "When was the last time you saw her?"

Trudie glanced at the ceiling in thought. "About 17 years ago."

"When she was gonna have Elena?" Emma asked.

Trudie nodded. "We kept in touch for a while, but, well, you know people drift apart."

"And you don't know where she ended up?" Elena pressed, and the young girl could sense the urgency in her voice.

The answers to her questions were so close, yet so far away.

"She was in Florida for a while. She was on her own. I know it wasn't easy."

Elena paused to think of her next question. "Do you have any idea who my father is?"

Trudie frowned. "I could never get her to fess up. Anyway, she finally pulled it together and got into college on a scholarship."

"Where'd she go?" Emma asked.

"Somewhere in North Carolina. Duke I think. Smart girl, smart school." The three exchanged smiles after hearing that.

The kettle screamed from the kitchen, and Trudie got up from her seat. "Let me get that."

Emma turned to her sister. "Well, it's going great so far." she whispered.

Elena nodded in agreement, a smile still on her face. "Yeah. It's nice to know more about her. I can finally have some questions answered."

"Well, that's good." Emma said as Trudie entered the room holding a tray with the cups and a blue book.

"While I was getting the tea, I remembered that I had a yearbook of our last year of high school." she said, setting the cups in front of the girls. She opened the book to a page covered with pictures, one of which happened to be the one the Gilberts saw earlier. "Ah. They came to the game for us. The football team hadn't won in years. We were the stars. Well, Izzie was. But I was a damn good back up." Trudie joked with a smile.

"This is great. Thank you." Elena said, pulling the book closer.

"You're welcome." Trudie glanced at the cups. "Neither of you haven't touched your tea."

"Oh, yeah." Emma said.

The girls reached out and grabbed their cups. But when Emma sipped the beverage, it had an unusual taste.

"Excuse me, but what is this?" Emma asked. The tea was unlike the others she's had in the past.

Trudie waved her off. "Oh, it's just some herbal mixture." she replied, looking anywhere but them.

Elena rose an eyebrow and took a whiff of the tea. "Vervain?"

Emma scrunched up her face and inspected the liquid in her cup. That was how vervain tasted?, she asked herself, pushing the tea cup away from her.

"You know." Elena deduced, eyes narrowed at the blonde across from them.

"Know what?" the woman asked as if she had no idea what Elena meant.

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

The young girl's eyes grew to the size of saucers. What were the chances of that woman knowing about vampires?

Trudie's chair screeched against the hardwood floor. "I think that you two should probably leave."

"Hold on, what are you not telling us?" Emma asked.

"Please, leave. Now!" Trudie demanded.

The girls jumped from her sudden outburst, but nonetheless, they obeyed and left the house.

As they entered the car, they caught sight of a man standing in the middle of the road, not far from where they were. All he did was stare at them. Elena started the car and zoomed off without giving him the chance to move.

"Elena, what was that about?" Emma asked, glancing back as the guy's figure grew smaller and smaller.

Elena sighed, making a left. "I don't know, but I intend to find out."

She drove past the usual route they would have taken to go back home. Soon, the terrain became infested with more trees. It wasn't long before a large, wide two story house came into view. It was a brick structure with grand windows and awe-inspiring lawn.

"Whoa." Emma blurted as the car went up the driveway and stopped just before the porch cover. "What is this place?"

"This is Stefan's house." Elena informed, shutting off the vehicle

They got out the car and into the house, the front door unlocked. "I'm going to go find Stefan, okay? Stay here." Elena said, leaving the girl to go upstairs.

Emma surveyed the room she was in, impressed by the beautiful brown wooden fireplace and matching couches that faced each other. Her legs carried her to the right, into a miniature library. She walked over to a shelf and ran her finger across the book spines, coming across a copy of The Great Gatsby. She pulled it out and opened the front cover to the very first page where a small passage was written.

It read:

Stefan

Thank you so much for purchasing the first copy of my book. I hope you enjoy it.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Emma smiled. She wasn't surprised to find out he had the very first copy signed by the great author himself. Being a vampire, he must have been around for a lot of stuff that happened well before she or even her parents were around. It made her wonder how old he actually was.

"You can borrow that if you want."

She jumped and turned around to see said vampire leaning against the door frame of the library.

"Oh, it's you." She huffed and lifted the book. "This? Thanks. I never got to read it."

"No problem." Stefan said with a smile. "So, what are you doing here?" he asked, walking in with his hands in his pockets.

Emma put the book down on a table. "Elena was looking for you. She went upstairs to your room." she replied.

Stefan nodded. "Oh, well then, let's go."

The two made their way up the stairs and into his room. In there, Elena and Damon were standing fairly close to each other.

"Emma. Stefan." Elena said, spotting the two enter the room. "There you are."

Stefan smiled down at her, snaking his arm around her waist.

"Uhh, I need to get a bigger jacket." Damon slurred, struggling to put on his leather jacket. "You know. An occasional sorority girl might, um, you know, help fill you out a little bit."

Emma scrunched up her nose in disgust at the comment.

"Oh, don't act like that, munchkin, you never know." Damon strutted to the door but stopped next to her. "You might enjoy it one day." he whispered, smirking when Emma widened her eyes.

"He's fine." Elena said after he left.

"He's Damon." Emma corrected, crossing her arms and getting mad at herself for letting his pointless jokes get to her. He was just antagonizing her.

Elena shook her head. "Maybe this heart break will be good for him. It'll remind him that he has a heart, even if it doesn't beat."

Stefan shrugged, rubbing Elena's arms. "Won't hold my breath."

A faint smile formed on Elena's face, but it disappeared as quickly as it came. "Emma and I went to see Trudie Peterson." Stefan's smile fell as well. "I know. I'm sorry. We didn't plan it."

"How was it?" he asked, looking at the girls.

"She had vervain." Emma answered, thinking back to the tea.

It blew her mind as to how easy it was for vervain to be slipped into anything consumable. With the tea, she would have blown it off as a brand she'd never had before and kept on drinking it. If it was food, it could have been perceived as some seasoning.

"She knows about vampire stuff, Stefan, and it can't be a coincidence." Elena said.

Stefan crossed his arms. "It isn't. This is Alaric's wife." he said, taking out a photo from his back pocket.

He unfolded the picture and held it out to the girls. It was a picture of a young woman: Isobel Flemming.

"That's her. This is Isobel." Emma revealed, pointing at her face. "So she really was his wife then."

He nodded. "Everything he knows about vampires, he learned from her. He believes that she was killed by one."

Elena widened her eyes. "Oh, my god."

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

"Why?" the older Gilbert asked.

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

It took a while for Elena to nod. "Okay. I'm going to go home and get ready for the fundraiser. Come on, Emma." she said, walking out of the room.

Emma waved at the Salvatore and followed her sister. "Bye, Stefan."

~♡~

The Gilbert sisters entered The Grill, being met by a packed restaurant full of woman of all ages.

"I had no idea there were this many single woman in town besides Aunt Jenna." Emma commented, eyeing the outfits and makeup they sported.

The fundraiser was set up as an auction. Eligible bachelors in Mystic Falls would stand on stage where short descriptions would be read about them. Whoever was interested in them would place a bid, and the lucky winner had a date with the guy. Usually those sort of fundraisers were filled with cougars and desperate people looking for someone. And her aunt was one among the crowd.

Elena chuckled. "Tell me about it."

They headed toward the reception desk, meeting the bubbly blonde who Elena called her best friend.

"O.M.G.! Emma?!" Caroline said, eyes wide.

"Oh no." Emma muttered, making her sister laugh again.

It wasn't that the young Gilbert didn't like her; it was just Caroline was the typical popular teenage drama queen. And because of that, the girl could be a bit too Caroline.

"Hi, Caroline." the girl greeted, being captured in an iron tight hug.

The blonde put her at arms length. "I missed you so much! When did you get back?"

"A couple of days ago." Upon she seeing the flash of hurt on Caroline's face, she quickly added, "I haven't really left the house. I was busy unpacking my bag and enjoying being home again."

Caroline smiled again and hugged the girl once more. "Well, I'm happy you're back."

A blonde boy, Matt Donovan, came to the table near them with a dish tub in his hands and a towel draped over his shoulder. The last time she lived in Mystic Falls, he and Elena were a couple, but after their parent's passing, her sister thought it was best to split and remain friends.

"Matt." Caroline called, practically skipping over to Matt and placing a kiss on his cheek.

Emma blinked a couple times; her mind blown. "Whoa, when did this happen?" she inquired, pointing between the two.

Caroline giggled, a blush creeping up her face.

"Not that long ago." he responded, smiling at his girlfriend.

Emma grinned, noticing the happy aura around them. "Well, I'm happy for you two."

"Thanks, Em." Caroline said. "I'm happy that I have such a cute boyfriend, and trust me, I'm not the only one that thinks this. He's been hit on, like, 35 times. He's total cougar bait."

Elena raised her eyebrows. "Impressive."

Matt rolled his eyes as his head shook side to side. "More like embarrassing."

They laughed. Matt was a good looking guy with buff arms, square jaw, blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and a cleft chin. It wasn't a surprise that all the women in the place were fawning over him.

As their laughter died down, a woman, Matt's mother, joined the group.

"Hi, Mrs. Donovan." Caroline greeted.

Mrs. Donovan, Kelly, ignored the poor girl as if she wasn't there. Caroline dropped her gaze, bowing her head, and Emma saw it. She wasn't sure why the woman was acting the way she was.

Kelly turned to the Gilbert sisters, arms stretched out for the oldest. "Elena, honey."

"Hi, Kelly." Elena said, hugging the woman. "How are you doing?"

"Oh, same old." Kelly stepped out of the hug and faced Emma. "Well, if it isn't the youngest Gilbert. Come here and give me a hug." She held her arms out to her.

Without much of a choice, the young girl hugged her, scrunching up her face from the tightness of the hug. "Hi."

"How's your Uncle John doing?" Kelly asked when they pulled away.

Emma shrugged, backing away from the woman without being too obvious. "He's okay."

Kelly nodded, her red hair bouncing. "That's good. Now Elena, Matty tells me you broke his heart." she playfully accused.

Matt quickly interjected with, "Mom."

"Just kidding. Calm down." Kelly said, giving her son a look and waving him off. She snuck a glance at Caroline. "He found his rebound girl."

Emma's eyes widened at the comment; taken back by her attitude towards Caroline. She didn't remember the woman acting in such a way at Elena while the two were going out, so she wondered why she would to Caroline.

"Oh, here you go, sweetheart. However many that'll buy." She gave Caroline a small stack of bills. "I just hope I don't get Bachelor 3. I dated him in high school. Not impressive." Kelly lowered her voice. "In any way."

The young Gilbert grimaced and felt a shiver run down her spine. She did not want to hear that.

Matt shook his head at his mother's words, shifting uncomfortably in his spot. Caroline handed the woman raffle tickets.

"Very exciting." Kelly said, grinning before walking off.

Emma watched at she sauntered away, praying she wouldn't have to speak to the woman later. She surveyed the room, taking in the nicely dressed men and woman. She went ridged when she made eye contact with a man she'd never seen before.

Nudging her sister, she pointed at him once his gaze broke away from hers. "Who's that?"

"Oh, that's Alaric." Elena responded, her expression saddening for a moment. It vanished, and she glanced around, gesturing toward a table. "Look, it's Jenna. Let's go."

After saying a quick 'bye' to Matt and Caroline, the sisters made their way to their aunt and sat down at the table just as the auction began. Emma saw all the bachelors get up to the stage and take their places in a line, two of which happened to be Alaric and Damon. Why Damon was there, she had no clue. She didn't peg him as the type to be charitable.

Carol Lockwood, the mayor's wife, held a microphone, quickly explaining the rules and what was expected. She went down the line of men, asking them random questions.

"And what do you do, Bachelor number 3?" she asked, holding the microphone up to the lucky contestant's mouth.

"Yeah, I'm a plumber." he grunted.

Carol forced a smile. "Well, isn't that wonderful? We could always use more plumbers. Moving on." She moved on to the next Bachelor who happened to be Alaric. "Number 4, Alaric Saltzman. Wow. That's quite a mouthful. What do you do Alaric?"

"I'm a teacher at Mystic Falls High." he spoke.

Carol lifted her eyebrows. "Oh, beauty and brains, ladies. This one's a keeper. What do you teach?" she asked.

"History."

"Oh, well, give us a fun fact about Mystic Falls, something crazy."

Alaric snuck a glance at Damon. The vampire held his hand up to his ear, clearly egging him on. She wasn't sure what he was trying to do.

"Uh, well. . ."

Carol brought the microphone back to her. "He's probably saving the best stories for his date. And last, but not least, Damon Salvatore." She stared at the blue index card in her hand. "We don't have much on you."

Emma caught sight of Elena waving at Stefan as he entered the restaurant.

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

"Do you have any hobbies. Like to travel?" Carol asked.

"Oh, yeah. L.A., New York. Couple of years ago, I was in North Carolina, near the Duke campus, actually. I think- I think Alaric went to school there." Damon asked, looking at Alaric.

The young girl's eyebrows furrowed, a pit forming in her stomach. That was leading to a dangerous coincidence.

"Didn't you, Ric? Yeah, 'cause I-I know your wife did. I had a drink with her once. She was a great girl. I ever told you that? 'Cause she was delicious."

Her head snapped over to Elena, seeing her sister's frozen body and tears threatening to spill.

Jenna leaned close to them. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"I just need some air." Elena said, getting up from her seat.

Emma followed, and they exited The Grill, the cold night air hitting them.

Elena paced back and forth, breathing becoming rapid. "Oh my god, Emma. Oh my god." she said, as Stefan joined them outside. "He killed her? Damon was the vampire that killed her?"

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

"Oh my god, Stefan."

Emma went up to Elena, forcing her to stop moving, and wrapped her right arm behind her back, rubbing small circles against her jacket.

Of all the things for Damon to do, it just had to be killing Elena's biological mother. When people said, "What a small world.", she didn't expect a situation like that to happen.

"I know. I'm sorry. I wanted to tell you, but I just- I wanted to know more."

Elena threw an arm up. "I was feeling sorry for him, hoping that this whole Katherine thing would change him."

"We were so stupid." Emma muttered, mentally kicking herself for showing a teeny bit of pity for a guy who did not deserve it.

"He doesn't know about the connection to you. I thought about confronting him, but he's already so on edge." Stefan explained.

Emma shook her head. "Stefan, why are you protecting him? He killed Elena's mother. How can he ever be forgiven for that?"

Stefan sighed. "Because you two are not the only ones hoping that he might actually change."

Elena said nothing, only shaking her head. When she looked over Stefan's shoulder, she ended up doing a double take. Emma looked, too, and saw the man that stood in the middle of the road earlier.

"That man." Elena mumbled.

Stefan turned around to see the man watching them.

"We saw that man outside of Trudie's." Emma said, eyeing the guy.

The only thing he did was stand perfectly still, his gaze never leaving their figures. His blank stare sent chills through the young girl.

"Get back inside. Come on." Stefan ordered, ushering the girls back inside The Grill.

Once they were inside, Elena excused herself and made her way to the restroom, leaving Emma alone with Stefan. The girl's eyes followed her sister as she left, not helping pity to consume her thoughts. The kind of life her sister was given was unimaginable. No one in their right mind would ever comprehend what she'd been through.

Even with herself, what she had to go through the moment she stepped foot back into Mystic Falls: almost dying, being kidnapped, and almost dying again. All of it was unthinkable.

She wondered about the lives Stefan and Damon had. From what she'd seen and learned, Stefan was the one who dealt with so much betrayal and pain from his own brother.

"Do you think he'll ever change?" the girl blurted, instantly regretting it. She didn't mean to actually ask.

Stefan shrugged, seeming not to mind the question. "I want to believe he will, but at the same time, he's Damon. We'll never know if he can."

"I just hope he will, for Elena's sake." Emma said. She had doubts of her own. As she was observing the restaurant, she caught sight of her sister with the devil himself. "Oh, no."

Stefan cupped the girl's elbow and guided her over to the duo.

". . . just when I thought that there was something redeemable of you." Elena said; disgust laced in her words.

"Elena." Emma said, shaking her head at her sister.

Damon turned and spotted the two. "Am I missing something here?"

The eldest Gilbert kept a stern look on her face. "Did I forget to mention earlier when we were talking about my birth mother. The one that gave me up?"

Damon stared at her with a lazy smile.

"Her name was Isobel."

His smile vanished.

"Go ahead. Reminisce about how you killed her." Elena glared at him before pushing past him, leaving the restaurant again.

Emma wasted no time to go after her. Once she was outside, she stood next to Elena. "El, let's just go home."

The two sisters halted, the same strange man standing before them. Stefan, now outside, placed himself between the man and the girls.

"I have a message for you." the man stated, staring directly at Elena.

"What?" Emma muttered, eyebrows coming together.

"Who are you?" Stefan inquired.

He ignored the questions, as if no one had said a word to him. "Stop looking."

"Stop looking for what?" Elena asked.

"She doesn't want to know you. She doesn't want to talk to you." the man replied, face still blank as ever.

"Isobel?" Elena breathed out.

Emma's eyes widened. Could it have been Elena's biological mother who sent the man as a messenger? If that were the case, why would she not want anything to do with her daughter?

"You need to stop looking. Do you understand?"

"She's alive? Does that mean she's a-" Elena stepped forward, hope radiating off her body, but Stefan reached out and held her back.

"Elena, he's being compelled." he said.

The young girl stared at the man, piecing together the monotone voice and vacant gaze as signs of compulsion. That information would be nice to have for future references.

"Do you understand?"

Elena nodded. "Yes, I do."

The man nodded as well, seeming to be pleased by her response. "Good." The man looked down the street. "I'm down now." Without warning, he jumped out into the road where a semi truck hit him.

Emma gasped and buried her face in Elena's side. She knew everyone else didn't expected for him to take his own life, but it's not like he made the decision on his own. Someone took away his freedom.

The three ran over to him, and the Salvatore bent down and examined the body. People began to flock over to them, phones out to call for help.

As Emma moved aside, her foot struck a flip phone on the asphalt. It must have fallen out of the man's pocket once he got hit. With the device, there was a chance they could use it to get answers for their many questions. Making sure no one was watching, Emma knelt down and picked it up.

"Come on. Let's get out of here." Stefan said, pushing the sisters away from the scene and watchful eyes.

~♡~

Emma, now wearing plaid pajama pants and a t-shirt with the school's logo, walked into her sister's room to see her holding a picture frame.

"Hey." she greeted, making her way over to the full sized bed. "Are you okay?" She sat next to Elena, catching a glimpse of their parent's photo in the frame.

"I don't know. I'm just so confused. Like why Isobel doesn't want to see me or talk to me. And why she gave me up for adoption. I just-"

Emma lifted her head and looked at her older sister. "It's going to be alright. You'll get your answers."

"How?" Elena said, putting the picture frame down in her lap.

"Well, I don't know if this would help but," The young girl pulled out the phone she was holding. "I found this by the guy's. . . body. Maybe, since he was compelled, he kept in contact with her."

Elena took the phone into her hand and scrolled through it, pressing buttons and holding it up to her ear. Emma leaned in a little, the ringings becoming more audible.

After a few more rings, the line picked up. "Was there a problem?" a woman's voice asked, resulting in the girls' eyes widening. "Did you find her? What's going on?"

Slowly, Elena asked, "Isobel?"

The line clicked, and only the dial tone could be heard. The doppelganger shut the phone and looked to Emma, her eyes becoming puffy. She wrapped her arms around Elena and brought her in a tight hug, allowing her sister to shed tears.

~♡~

Edited on 6/22/19: yay me for being super slow at editing :)Please bare with me.