A few days later Elena was sitting on the porch swing crocheting while letting her thoughts run in whatever direction they want. She hadn't talked to Bonnie since her Grams funeral, still feeling betrayed by what the Bennett witches had planned to do in the tomb.

"What are you doing out here?" Jenna asked as came over while sipping on her coffee.

"Thinking, crocheting, planning world domination." Elena shrugged.

"So, the usual then?" Jenna laughed.

"Yeah, basically." Elena smiled back.

"So, you remember how I told you I would do some digging about the adoption?" Jenna asked and at Elenas interested not she continued. "Well, I might have found something. Come inside and I'll tell you."

Elena put away her work in her special hobby bag and followed Jenna. As the two of the sat down at the dinner table, Jenna pulled out her laptop. "Your dad kept everything from his medical practice – records, logs, old appointment books, etc. I found an entry from the night you were born. Patient and a birth date; Isobel Peterson."

"But you don't think that is her real name, do you?" Elena looked at Jenna with a frown.

"Pregnant teenage runaway? Probably not. First name, maybe. But where'd she get Peterson? Classmate? Best friend? So, I binged it." Jenna pulled up the right internet page and typed in a name in the search engine. "I searched for all the Petersons in this area born the same year as Isobel and found 3 – 2 men and a woman, Trudie, who lived in Grove Hill, Virginia."

"That's not far from here." Elena hummed softly.

"Watch this." Jenna typed something else into the search engine and pulled up and image of Isobel from high school.

"So that's Isobel." Elena just looked at the screen.

"Trudie still lives there." Jenna smiled and handed Elena a post-it note with an address on it. "This is her address."

"Aunt Jenna, if the whole psychology thing doesn't work out you could start your own business as a private investigator." Elena told Jenna, impressed, making Jenna blush at the compliment.

"Sadly, I couldn't find anything about Isobel." Jenna frowned uncertainly. "There is something else though. Ric, Mr. Saltzman, his wife was from around here and her name was Isobel."

"Wait, 'was' as in...?" Elena asked.

"She died." Jenna said softly.

Well, they weren't wrong, per say, Isobel was dead, just not completely. Wait a minute...if Ric had been/was technically still married to her biological mother that made him her stepfather, right?? And he was also dating her aunt making him her sort of step-uncle...

'Oh My God...this sounds more and more like the plot of a very, very bad porn flick by the minute.' Elena thought in disgust.

A couple of hours later Elena was folding her laundry as she talked to Stefan who was sitting on her bed.

"So, Alaric's wife might have been your biological mother?" Stefan asked shocked.

"The way my life is going, it wouldn't fucking surprise me." Elena muttered. "I have the address for her friend Trudie."

"You wanna talk to her?" Stefan asked gently.

"I don't know. Both yes and no." Elena shrugged. "I'll admit to being curious."

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

"No, just that she was killed and the case was never solved." Elena looked over at him and when she saw that he wasn't surprised she said. "You already knew."

"The night at the school when I went to get the journal, he told me some things about her death."

"Hmm." Elena hummed as she put the last of her laundry way.

"I should get going." Stefan said as he stood up. "I'm going to check on Damon."

"How is he doing?" Elena wanted to know, not having heard anything from Damon since they had opened the tomb.

"He's coping in his own way but I'm still worried." Stefan confessed.

"Go to him but don't force him to talk, just be there when he needs you." Elena advised.

XOXOXOX

Elena stood looking at a house that matched the address on her post-it note. "Thank you for going with me today, Caroline." She murmured as she slowly walked up the steps to knock on the front door but hesitates uncertainly.

"Are you going to knock or not?" Caroline asked from beside her. "And you are very welcome."

"Yeah, right, of course." Elena smiled awkwardly and knocked, when nothing happened Lena turned to leave a woman opened the door.

"Trudie? Trudie Peterson?" Elena asked gently.

"Yes?" The answered looking between Elena and Caroline.

"My name is Elena Gilbert and this is my best friend Caroline Forbes." Elena introduced the both of them. "I wanted to talk about Isobel Flemming."

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

"Do you know if she had a baby that she gave up for adoption?" Elena asked.

"My god, you're her daughter." Trudie laughed. "I was just going to make some tea, would you two like some?"

"That would be very nice, thank you." Elena smiled as Caroline nodded.

"Kitchens this way." Trudie opened the door for them to pass and Elena narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

Elena and Caroline are led into a room that's connected to the kitchen and offered seats and a mug each.

"I wasn't going to come but then I thought that I would regret it if I didn't." Elena tried to explain. "I'm sorry for just showing up though."

"It's no problem, just a bit of a surprise." Trudie reassured. "I haven't thought about Isobel in years."

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

"About 17 years ago, when she left to go have you." The last part Trudie directed towards Elena. "We kept in touch for a while, but, well, you know, people drift apart."

"And you have no idea where she ended up?" Elena wondered.

"I know that she was in Florida for a while, she was on her own and it wasn't easy." Trudie shrugged.

"Do you have any idea of who my father is?" Elena asked, more for Carolines benefit, already knowing who her biological father was.

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

"Where did she go?" Caroline leaned forward.

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

When the kettle started to whistle Trudie excused herself to go get it from the kitchen. When she got back from the kitchen, she carried both the tea and a photo album in her arms.

Trudie pointed at a picture of Trudie and Isobel dressed as cheerleaders after she had poured the tea for the three of them, "They came for us. The football team hadn't won in years so we were the stars."

"Now we know where you get it from." Caroline smiled at Elena.

"You're a cheerleader?" Trudie asked.

"I was but Caroline is cheer captain." Elena proudly brags about her best friend.

"Is something wrong?" Trudie asked them. "You haven't touched your tea."

"Oh, yeah." Elena took a slow sip and frowned. "What is this?"

"Oh, it's just some herbal mixture." Trudie shrugged.

"Vervain." Elena stated.

"I thought I recognized the smell." Caroline muttered.

"You know." Elena looked straight at Trudie.

"Know what?" Trudie shifted and looked around.

"You didn't invite us in and you're serving vervain tea." Elena pointed out seriously. "That leads me to the conclusion that you know about vampires."

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

"Fine by me." Elena muttered. "Thank you for your hospitality and for the tea, not that you needed that."

"And why is that?" Trudie asked.

"We both wear jewelry filled with vervain." Caroline sneered and then she and Elena walked out without another word.

XOXOXOX

After Elena had dropped Caroline off at Matt's place she walked into the boarding house and up to Stefans room. "Stefan?"

"Better." Damons walked out of the bathroom in low hanging jeans and without a shirt. "Me."

"You look, um..." Elena stared at the pale sculpted torso.

"Dashing? Gorgeous? Irresistible?" Damon smirked as he walked closer to her and Elena put a hand on his chest when he got a little too close.

"All of the above." Elena shrugged, like it was no big deal. "And a bit wrecked."

"Did you know that I'm one of Mystic Fall's most eligible bachelors?" Damon purred at her.

"Am I supposed to be impressed?" Elena sassed with a smirk, the smirked then melted into a gentle smile. "How are you doing?"

"Never better." Damon walked over to the closet and put on a 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." Elena laughed. "We are going to the fundraiser. I convinced him to help Jenna buy enough tickets so she could win Alaric."

"Help a guy out, will you?" Damon turned to her, showing that he had trouble with the buttons. "Can't get this."

"So, I found out who my birth mother is." Elena told him as she buttons up his shirt.

"Egh, who cares?" Damon muttered and at Elenas look he elaborated. "She left you, she sucks."

"Well, you're not wrong about that." Elena agreed and did her best not to laugh at the unintentional vampire joke. Then she looked behind Damon and smiled. "Hey Stefan."

Damon walked over and pulled on a jacket and groaned, "Ugh, I need a bigger jacket. Wow you know, an occasional sorority girl might, um, you know, help fill you out a little."

Elena giggled and asked, "Does that actually matter or is it more along the lines of you basically looking the same as when you were turned?"

"If you don't drink enough blood you get thinner but you will never really grow muscles you didn't have as a human either." Damon told her as he threw the jacket on Stefans bed and walked out of the room.

"He is so lost." Elena sadly as she looked at Damons retreating back. "Drowning in pain with no end in sight."

"He has always been the strong one, the one who never lets anything hurt him." Stefan murmured. "Seeing him so hurt and sad... I want to help but I don't know how."

"We will simply show silent support and let him know that we are here if he needs us." Elena declared.

"We?" Stefan smiled at her.

"Of course, I'm going to help." Elena vowed. "Damon is my friend!"

"Thank you." Stefan hugged her.

"For what?" Elena looked confused even as she hugged back.

"For being you." Stefan pulled back.

"Well, who else should I be?" Elena asked him with a raised eyebrow. "The Easter Bunny?"

Stefan burst out laughing, then at Elenas look he explained. "Sorry...sorry... it's just.... I got the picture...of you...in a giant...bunny onesie." At the end of the explanation he had tears running down his face from laughter and Elena had started to giggle along with him.

Around ten minutes later they had managed to calm down and Stefan asked. "How did yours and Carolines trip go today?"

"Trudie knew about vampires." Elena told him. "She refused to explicitly invite us in, she just opened the door and then she served vervain tea."

"You were right, it seems." Stefan groaned and pulled out a photo. "Alaric's dead wife was your biological mother."

"That's Isobel." Elena said as she looked at the picture. "Did Ric give this to you?"

"Yeah and everything Alaric knows about vampires he learned from Isobel." Stefan sighed. "He thinks she was killed by one."

"Huh, that sucks." Elena mumbled, then she giggled. "Haha 'sucks'."

"Listen Elena, there is a lot about Isobel that Alaric can tell you, but you need to hold off for a little while before you talk to him." Stefan looked at her seriously.

"Stefan, what are you not telling me?" Elena looked him straight in the eyes.

"Elena..." Stefan started but a slight glare from Elena made him sigh. "Alaric is convinced that Damon killed Isobel."

"Okay." Elena shrugged and started to walk out of Stefans room. "So, let's ask him."

When they made it down stairs Damon was putting on a jacket, ready to leave for the bachelor raffle.

"Hey Damon, can we ask you something?" Elena asked with a smile.

"You just did." Damon smirked. "But because it's you who asked I guess you can ask another one."

"This is Isobel." Stefan held out the photo. "From North Carolina. Do you remember her?"

"Why so interested?" Damon sneered.

"She's my biological mother." Elena explained and then, with no judgement at all, she asked. "Did you kill her?"

"Elena I'm so drunk that I don't even remember the faces of who I killed last week." Damon told her softly.

"Can you call me or something if you do remember her?" Elena asked him.

"Absolutely." Damon smiled at her, straightened his posture and plastered his usual smirk on his face. "Are you two coming? The Real Housewives of Mystic Falls await."