The horizon brought a new light to the town. Everything seemed quiet and peaceful, something they all seemed to not have in the past months. The sheriff worked tirelessly to find the people—the monsters responsible for the murders, not knowing they were right under her nose.

     It was a good day and maybe if Jasmine was feeling sympathetic, she would let them have this moment of peace. Albeit, her mind was distracted, her subconscious knew to not stray from her plan. A plan to cause terror in the town that held the people she desperately wanted to prove right.

     "You could have found my mother this entire time and you didn't think to mention it?"

     Elena could blame Jasmine for many things, for many reasons and not grow tired of it. Maybe it was the fact that she now had her magic back, but Jasmine didn't seem as quite annoyed with the girl's accusations.

     "You're not important to me, Elena. Why would I do something that could benefit you?"

     They trudged back to town at human speed after getting a full night's rest. Elena didn't realize just how far away from town and how deep in the woods they were.

     "Because I'm important to Stefan and he's important to you. So, shouldn't that mean I get some favors, too?"

     Elena rolled her eyes when Jasmine stopped in her tracks just to laugh in her face.

     "No, sweetheart, it means I can't kill you." Resuming the walk, Jasmine scoffed, "plus, we don't know how long you two will be together."

     "Stefan loves me."

     "That doesn't mean he's in love with you. He cares about you a lot—hell, you're the first serious girlfriend he's ever had, of course he cares. But haven't you ever stopped to think that maybe it's not long term?"

     Doubts began clouding Elena's mind, but that didn't mean she was going to stand there and have Jasmine think she had a point.

     So, scoffing, Elena stopped in her tracks with her arms crossed, "I knew jealousy wasn't a good color for you."

     "Here we go again." Jasmine muttered, wondering why she didn't kill her in the first place.

     "You still have feelings for Stefan and you're jealous because he loves me and not you. Hate to break it to you, but we're never breaking up."

     The sneer on Elena's face was enough for Jasmine to get irritated. Sure, there were plenty of hook ups of Stefan's that accused her of the same thing, but something about Elena seemed to hit a nerve.

     "He knows about your feelings for Damon. You two weren't very oblivious at the Miss Mystic Falls dance." Elena dropped her gaze at the floor, "Stefan may be worrying about you and possibly thinking he can't live without you, but that's just how he is. He cares for humans and is irritatingly protective of them. He may be trying to get you back, but that doesn't mean it's because he cares for you romantically."

     "You're not making any sense."

     Taking deliberate slow steps toward her, Jasmine dropped her voice to a whisper, "it means he's confusing worrying about a human with worrying about his girlfriend."

     It would explain why Stefan was growing cold toward Damon again and why they hadn't been intimate recently. Elena knew her feelings for Damon were growing, but she couldn't help feeling like she needed to cling onto Stefan. Stefan who was kind, pure and overall good... opposed to Damon who was snarky, spontaneous, and a bit troubled.

     "I can see the gears turning in your head. If you truly want them happy, then don't string them along. You don't even have to choose one but rather focus on yourself instead. As much as I loathe you, Elena, you don't need a partner to make the sadness go away. You can do that on your own."

     Without another word, Jasmine gestured ahead and kept walking with Elena beside her.

     "Where are we going?" Not expecting the small advice, Elena's voice came out timid.

     "We're going to go see your mother. I hope you're ready."

----

     "Where's Elena?"

     The Salvatores and Lexi glanced at each other before sighing. They didn't have a clue, but they didn't know it would have been a problem to the history teacher.

     "We don't know."

     "What do you mean you don't know?!"

     Lounging on the desks, Lexi felt like a student being scolded by a teacher, "Jasmine took her."

     Exasperated, Alaric paced the room trying to figure out what he was going to tell his undead wife that her daughter was with a raging lunatic.

     "Why does she need to be here anyway?" Alaric glanced at Stefan, his eyes softening when he took in the vampire's disheveled self.

     "Isobel paid me a visit last night."

     "Who's Isobel?" Once again out of the known, Lexi rolled her eyes.

     "She's Elena's mother."

     "What did she want?" Damon stood from his seat—Stefan repressed an eye roll at this—as the thought of another vampire wanting to mess with Elena.

     "She said she wants to meet Elena and if we don't set it up... she's going to slaughter the town."

     It was a silent agreement within them as they thought they just couldn't catch a break in this town.

     Plans were formed on how to find Jasmine—"she has her magic by now, so she could have just cloaked herself with her own magic this time"—how to stall Isobel—"she's your wife, Alaric. I'm sure you have some strange kink to keep her occupied." "Is it impossible for you to not be a dick?"—and how to keep Jasmine from lashing out—no one had a decent plan for that one.

     They kept at it for a couple more hours, not noticing the students were leaving as they had finished their plans for their own floats. Each idea was shut down or made into something that might have been the imagination of a six year old. Time was slipping away from them and panic once more filled the air inside the classroom.

     As they were packing up to continue a suicide plan to stop Isobel, Stefan's phone rang with Elena's name flashing on the screen.

     "Elena! Are you okay? Where are you?"

     "Aww, worried about your little girlfriend? That's cute, Stef."

     Alaric motioned for Stefan to put it on speaker as he noticed the vampire's expression fall.

     "Jasmine, where's Elena?"

     "She's six feet under the ground." Silence was emitted from both ends before it was interrupted by laughter, "I'm kidding. You need to stop being so uptight, Stef. Elena is fine."

     They all let out a collective of exhales, relief flooding them for different reasons. For Alaric, it was knowing the town would see another day. For Damon, it was the fact that Elena was safe. Lexi felt relief knowing her best friend didn't have the doppelgänger's blood on her hands. And Stefan... he was relieved that they were both okay.

     "Yeah, I just thought why kill her when I can just destroy her mentally? That'd be way more fun."

     "Jasmine, please."

     If there was ever a time where Stefan would get on his knees—again—and beg Jasmine to not do something drastic, it was now. So on the verge but willing to take extreme measures to go back was something Jasmine was battling internally. A tragic, cliché love story on the rocks. All he needed to say was the right words.

     "What, Stefan? Please, what?"

     This was the moment that could break her and Lexi could sense he wasn't going to say the right thing. Not the right words Jasmine wanted to hear.

     "I love her, Jasmine. Don't do anything crazy."

     Stefan couldn't hear Lexi muttering, "oh, boy," as he concentrated on where Jasmine was by listening to her surroundings. On the other line, Jasmine stopped walking causing Elena to bump into her.

     "Hmmm. What's exactly your definition of crazy? Because I was thinking handing her over to her estranged mother was perfectly normal."

     "Jasmine, don't you dare!" Damon had had enough of Jasmine's constant hand in Elena's life in danger several times these past couple of months. He was going crazy wondering when the vampire was going to finally kill her—which in turn would kill him, too. He knew it was wrong, but he fell in love with his brother's girlfriend in the short time he knew her. Damon couldn't explain it, but he just knew they were meant to be together... his brother was just an obstacle to get through.

     "Let me guess, Isobel already made herself known to you lot? What did she say she was going to do if she didn't get what she wanted?"

     "She's going to kill everyone."

     "She was always so dramatic—explains where you got it from, huh, Elena? You're seriously going to let that deter you? Have you met me or at least seen what I've been doing the past couple months?"

     The three vampires and vampire hunter looked at each other. What Isobel was threatening was something Jasmine had been doing—slowly, but surely. Why were they panicking over something they've already been dealing with? It was because they didn't have any impact on Isobel's decisions. They couldn't determine her emotions, if she had any.

     "She's unpredictable—"

     Stefan almost let a smile slip when he heard Jasmine scoff, "please, Isobel Flemming is nothing but a cockroach. Once she gets what she wants she'll crawl back into the hole she was hiding in. Anyways, good chat, I'll see you all later!"

     After she hung up the phone, Stefan began gathering his belongings. He knew where they were at and he'd be damned if he didn't go save Elena before Jasmine handed her over to Isobel.

     "Where are you going?" Damon had his eyebrows furrowed as he watched his brother walk out the door.

     Gesturing for Lexi and Damon to follow him, he went on with his explanation, "I was listening to clues on where Jasmine was and I heard a car alarm go off towards the end of the call."

     "Okay, a lot of cars have alarms, Stefan! How is that helpful at all?"

     "Do you know Mrs. Stevenson who works in the small antique shop at the end of the town square? It was her car alarm, the one that makes you want to rip your hair out by how annoying it is. She's coming back into town, which means she can lead us straight to Isobel if we hurry."

     Without another word, they sped out of the school and straight to where Mrs. Stevenson resided.

----

    "Can I ask you a question?"

     Seems to be that her phone call with Stefan had bothered her to the point of growing irritated with Elena, "you're going to ask anyway if I say no, so out with it."

     "Who called you? When we were back in the woods... it seemed like they upset you."

     "It was an old friend with some troubling news which I find hard to believe in. If what he says is true... it doesn't matter because Castle is full of codswallop." Ignoring Elena's confused expression, she continued to tug her along to where Isobel had confided in her to where she was staying. The biggest foreclosed house in the entire town.

     "Castle... is that his name?"

     "Last name, now stop asking questions. We're almost there." They continued on in silence until Jasmine perked up with a question of her own, "have you ever wondered who your real father is?"

     Looking to the ground, Elena shrugged, "I never really thought about it, actually."

     It was strange to have a normal and civilized conversation with Elena, but she had a motive to her politeness.

     "Well, any theories?"

     "No, I didn't know who my mother interacted with when she was younger so there's no telling who it could be. I actually thought it was Alaric for a couple of hours, but completely cancelled that out."

     Walking up the steps to a big white house, Jasmine could hear the heartbeats inside of it. Isobel's, her pets', and... she couldn't pin the other one, but she knew they were human. She concentrated her hearing as Elena continued to ramble about her theories on who her father might be.

     From inside the house she heard the annoyed and stoic voice of Isobel reprimanding someone—"you couldn't do it, so now I have to take matters into my own hands, John."

     Jasmine's head was reeling from the information. She knew John was working with Isobel, but for what, she didn't know. Why would a vampire hunter form an alliance with a vampire? There were some reasons: the vampire giving up information about other vampires to save its own neck, they were once friends or—lovers. Snapping her head to look at Elena, the gears kicked into place. John Gilbert was working with Isobel Flemming because they both had a mutual friend, or rather child.

     Stopping Elena's rant as they neared the door, Jasmine gave her a wide smile, "I have a theory about who your father is. Are you ready to meet him?"

     Confused yet intrigued, Elena walked through the door after Jasmine opened it for her. Before she could ask who it was, John Gilbert appeared with a surprised look in his face with Isobel trailing behind.

     "Uncle John?"

     Jasmine let a small smirk graze her lips as she stepped forward, "actually, doppelbitch, it's Dad to you."