(act one, chapter fifteen: a few good men)

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"Hold on. Our history teacher's wife might have been your mother?" Buffy asked, eyes wide open. After the funeral of Bonnie's grams, Buffy returned late back at the Gilbert house and her mom had decided to let her sleep in but apparently while she was asleep upstairs her mom had told Elena, she might have found out who Elena's mom was.

The only problem was that Isobel might be Alaric's Saltzman's dead wife. Buffy had asked her sister before Stefan could even ask his girlfriend.

"I mean it can't be true, right? The coincidence alone is just crazy." She turned around to face the two, holding up a note in her hand. "I have the address for her friend Trudie."

"You wanna talk to her." Stefan said.

"I don't know." She said as she passed Stefan and Buffy. "I don't know." She muttered again. "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.

"Elena, did Jenna tell you anything about Alaric's wife? How she died?"

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

Stefan nodded. 

"You knew that already?"

"The night at the school when he attacked me and Buffy. He told us some things about her death."

"Well-" Elena said but Stefan cut her off.

"No, no. It's not possible. The coincidence is too much." He said, grabbing her hand as a sign of his support.

LIAR we both know it's everything but a coincidence.

"Now, listen, if you do decide to go Talk to Isobel's friend, I'll go with you. Okay?"

"I just don't know what I'm gonna do yet." Elena nodded as she hugged Stefan.

"I should get going. I gotta go deal with Damon."

"How's he doing?" Buffy asked, worriedly.

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

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Alaric and Jenna were at the Mystic Grill, pitting up a banner outside of it.

"I don't know. It's just weird, you know. Me being raffled off like a Disney cruise.

"In this town, fundraising is like indentured servitude. You don't have a choice. Besides, you're a bachelor, and you're eligible, so there you go."

Alaric moved to the side of the banner, moving closer to Jenna.

"Here let me help you with this." He said before helping her hang up the banner. Jenna smiled at him before Alaric leaned in and kissed her.

But Jenna pulled back.

"Oh, god. I can't believe I'm gonna do this.

"What?" Alaric asked, confused.

"I am totally gonna ruin this moment, but I have to tell you. Elena recently found out she was adopted, and she's been looking for her birth mother, whose name was Isobel."

"Isobel? Like my wife?" Alaric asked and Jenna nodded, slowly. "Isobel never had a baby."

"Are you sure? Not before you were together?" She asked.

"Nope. No way." Alaric said, stubbornly.

Jenna took out her phone and showed him the picture of Isobel that she had also shown to her niece. "This is Elena's birth mother."

And only the look on Alaric's face told Jenna she had been right. "Ah, she, uh- she never told me. I'm gonna go. Yeah, I'm gonna go." The man said before walking away with this new information he had to accept.

First when he moved into town he found out he had a daughter with the woman who was now his girlfriend.

The news which he and Jenna still had to tell to Buffy, but both were to scared to do so. Scared that she would hate them forever. Jenna for not telling her and Alaric for not being there for the past seventeen years.

And now his dead wife had a daughter?

What else would he get to know while being here?

Well, he knew he wouldn't leave. Not now he had Jenna and soon would be able to tell Buffy the real truth.

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"Are you sure, Elena?" Buffy asked Elena while they both stood in front of Trudie's house.

"Yeah." Elena said but Buffy could hear the unsure note in her voice.

"Okay." Buffy replied as Elena wanted to knock on the door, before pulling her hand away again. At the moment Buffy wanted to reassure Elena again, her sister knocked on the door.

A blonde woman opened the door. The same woman who had stood on the photo next to Isobel.

"Trudie? Trudie Peterson?" Elena asked, unsure.

"Yes?" Trudie replied with a little smile.

"Uh, my name is Elena Gilbert. I wanted to talk to you about Isobel Flemming."

"Well, I haven't heard that name in years. How do you know her?"

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

"My god. You're her daughter." Truedie realised. "I was just gonna make some tea. Would you like some?

"Sure." Elena replied.

"Uh, the kitchen's this way." Trudie said as she pointed behind her before slowly letting Buffy in, who did not miss the way she looked down at the ground as expecting for them not to pass through the door.

"I wasn't gonna come. I didn't think I was, but I was driving, and I hit this stoplight, and it made me think about when I was learning how to drive and then my mom would always warn me about this blind turn on the left-hand side, and then I was thinking about my mom, and I had your address. I'm sorry for barging in."

"It's no problem. Just a surprise, though.I haven't thought about Isobel in years." Trudie responded.

"When was the last time you saw her?" Elena asked.

"About 17 years ago, when she left to go have you. We kept in touch for a while, but, well, you know, people drift apart." Trudie responded but she hesitated. Which was not noticed by Elena but it Buffy looked at her suspicious.

"And you don't know where she ended up?" Buffy asked.

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

"Do you have any idea who my father is?" Elena asked.

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

"Where did she go?"

"Somewhere in North Carolina. Duke, I think. Smart girl, smart school." Elena smiled. "Let me just grab that." Trudie said as she stood up after hearing the kettle.

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Stefan was waiting in the Town Squara, for Alaric to show up since he had asked the vampire he wanted to know something.

"Thanks for meeting me. Something's come up." Alaric said as he had walked up to Stefan.

"Jenna told you." Stefan realized.

"Yeah." Alaric sighed.

"So it's true. Your wife, Isobel, was Elena's birth mother."

"What does Elena know?" Alaric asked.

"About your wife?"

"About everything. About you, your brother." Alaric cleared.

"She knows what I am, and she knows that you know about the vampires."

"Does she know about Damon and Isobel?"

"No. I couldn't tell her, not until I was sure." Stefan answered. He would've told her if he had known.

"You said you'd help me."

"I asked Damon without saying too much. He doesn't remember."

"Ask him again." Alaric insisted.

"Damon is not stable right now."

"You know, he murdered my wife. Or at the very least made a meal out of her. When has he been stable?"

"I'm telling you not to push this."

"Give me a reason not to."

"Your survival. How's that for a reason? I'll handle it, but for now, I need you to let it go."

"Is that what you'll tell Elena? Let it go?"

Stefan stepped closer to Alaric in a threatening way. "Leave Elena out of this."

"I need to know what happened. I think you would, too."

Stefan let out a breath as he backed away from the history teacher. "I need something more than just your wife's name. A picture, something I could show Damon."

Alaric took a photo of his passed wife from his wallet and handed it to Stefan, who took it before leaving the man alone again.

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"Ah. They came to the games for us.The football team hadn't won in years." Trudie said with a chuckle, pointing at the photo Elena's eyes had fallen on, the same one Jenna had shown her. 'We were the stars. Well, izzie was.But I was a damn good backup." 

"This is great. Thank you."

"You're welcome." Trudie replied as she looked at their cups, they still hadn't drank from. "You haven't touched your tea."

"Oh. Yeah." Elena and Buffy replied, both raising the cup to their lips but as they drank the tasted the weird taste. "What is this?" Buffy asked as Elena sniffed at the tea.

"Oh, it's just some herbal mixture." Trudie said with a shrug. 

"Vervain?" Buffy asked and the woman stopped going through the photo album. "You know."

"Know what?"

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

Trudie stood up. "I think that you should probably leave." 

"Wait. What are you not telling us?" Elena asked, confused after setting her cup of tea back on the table.

Trudie didn't reply to Elena's question.

"Please leave. Now!" She said in a louder tone, it was like she was scared they would know something. Buffy sighed at the disappointment at Elena's face as they left the house. She had hoped this would've gone better.

As Elena grabbed her keys from her purse, Buffy noticed a man standing in the middle of the road, staring at them.

Talk about being creepy

When Elena also noticed the man, she unlocked the car door as fast as she could, igniting the engine and driving up off with Buffy.

Buffy would've told her about Alaric's wife being murdered by Damon but if it was not the same Isobel, she probably would've broken her sister's heart for nothing so she decided to keep her mouth shut.

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"He's already been hit on, like, 35 times. He's total cougar bait." Caroline said to Elena and Buffy after some time. They joined her and Matt by the front of the grill and the couple seemed to be joking around.

"Impressive."

"More like embarrassing." Matt said with a smile towards Caroline, who laughed in return before noticing Kelly Donovan walking towards them. "Hi, Mrs. Donovan."

The woman barely gave the Forbes a look of disgust as she walked over to Elena's and Buffy's side.

"Buffy, honey."

"Hi, Kelly." Buffy replied with a polity smile as the woman hugged her.

Ew

To be honest, Buffy never quite liked the oldest Donovan. She always gave off bad vibes and the way she's never there for her kids made Buffy dislike her fast. Luckily Kelly quickly let go off her as she greeted Elena the same way.

"How are you doing?" Elena asked her.

"Oh, same old." She replied. "Oh. Matty tells me you broke his heart."

"Mom." Matt said, shocked.

"Just kidding. Calm down. He found his rebound girl." 

The smile of Caroline's face disappeared quicker than a speeding bullet. It immediately made Buffy want to push the woman of the clock tower seeing her best friend so upset. She kinda was wishing Damon had killed Kelly rather than Isobel.

Kelly extracted some money out of her purse and handed it to Caroline, who took the money with a small smile. Not convincing anyone.

"Oh. Here you go, sweetheart. However many that'll buy. I just hope I don't get bachelor 3.I dated him in high school. Not impressive. In any way." She added the last part in a whisper.

Matt shook his head, embarrassed while Caroline handed Kelly her tickets.

"Very exciting." The woman said as she took them and walked off further into the grill.

A little bit later all the bachelors made their way up to the stage before Stefan had walked inside.

"And what do you do, bachelor number 3?" Mrs. Lockwood asked the bachelor who Kelly dated in high school.

"Yeah, I'm a plumber."  He spoke into the mic as a few of the single women laughed.

"Well, isn't that wonderful? We could always use more plumbers. Moving on." She moved next to Alaric. "Number 4, 'Alaric Saltzman'. Wow. That's quite a mouthful. What do you do, alaric?

"I'm a teacher at mystic falls high."

"Oh, beauty and brains, ladies. This one's a keeper. What do you teach?"

Buffy saw her mom blush a little as Alaric looked over to their table, making her and Elena laugh.

"Oh, shut up."

"History."

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

Alaric looked over to Damon, who placed his hand up to his ear, sarcastically anticipating a response.

"Uh, well."

But before the history teacher could even form a fact, Carol pulled the microphone away.

"He probably saving the best stories for his date." She walked over to Damon. "And last, but not least, Damon Salvatore. We don't have much on you."

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

"Do you have any hobbies, like to travel?"

"Oh, yeah. L.A., New York. Couple of years ago, I was in North Carolina, near the duke campus, actually. I think Alaric went to school there. Didn't you, Ric?" Damon responded, turning so he could look at Alaric, who did the same.

"Yeah, 'cause I know your wife did."

Buffy saw Elena sitting up more straight next to her, smile slowly dissapearing.

 "I had a drink with her once. She was a great girl. I ever tell you that? 'Cause she was delicious."

Buffy had really hoped that Elena's mother hadn't been the same woman but apparently she was as she saw Elena's mouth hanging open from the corner of her eye and tears had filled her sister's eyes as she stared at Damon, shocked.

"Are you okay?" Jenna asked her, bewildered. 

"I just need some air." Elena muttered as she stood up, walking towards the exit, Stefan following right behind her.

"I'm gonna check up on Caroline, okay?" Buffy asked her mom, also standing up and making her way over to her blonde best friend.

"I hate Kelly Donovan so much." Was the first thing her friend said to her.

"Girl, same. She had no right treating you like that. Elena and Matt broke up and if she can't accept that, that's her problem. Little miss Whorovan."

Buffy normally was super sweet, but not when someone insulted her best friend. 

"Thanks." Caroline said, laughing.

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Words: 2354

Posted: April 21, 2024

Be sure to comment. I love reading them and it keeps me motivated!

x Kat