Gilberts [Damon Salvatore]

Chapter 15. A few Good Men

Elena is sitting on the porch swing, her journal laid out on her lap and her phone up to her ear as she leaves Bonnie a voicemail. I am sitting on the floor on my laptop.

Elena on the phone "Hey, Bonnie, it's me just checking in, seeing how you're doing. We miss you here. Don't let your aunt drive you too crazy" Jenna walks up onto the porch and stops to look at us while sipping her coffee "Come home soon. Love you" hang up

I groan "Poor Bonnie"

Jenna asks us "What are you doing out here? It's cold"

Elena says "Thinking, writing. The, uh, funeral for Bonnie's grandma, it brought back a lot about mom and dad. I was wondering..."

I say "And I'm sitting after canceling my job offer"

Elena asks "You cancel it?"

I smirk "Why do I leave town now you need me, sister"

Elena raises her eyebrows "Yeah and Salvatore needs you" to Jenna "You said that you would do some digging about them, the adoption"

Jenna says "Right"

Elena says "So did you? Dig?"

Jenna says "Come on inside" 

I roll my eyes close my laptop and We go inside. Jenna pulls out her laptop and sits down at the dining table and Elena and I stand next to her, we removed our jackets.

Jenna says "Your dad kept everything from his medical practice—records, logs, old appointment books" She pulls out a journal and opens it, showing a page to us "I found an entry from the night you were born. Patient and a birth date. Isobel Peterson"

Elena asks "Do you think that's her real name?"

I lean on my hand "Pregnant teenage runaway? Probably not"

Jenna says "Yeah, First name, maybe. But where'd she get Peterson? Classmate? Best friend? So I binged it" She pulls up the Internet and types in a name in the search engine "I searched for all the Petersons in this area born the same year as Isobel, found 3--2 men and a woman, Trudie, who lived in Grove Hill, Virginia"

Elena says "That's not far from here"

"Well, watch this" Jenna types something else into the search engine and pulls up an image of Isobel from high school.

"Isobel" Elena looks at the picture with a smile. 

 I look at her angry "She was a cheerleader"

Jenna says "Trudie still lives there" She hands me a post-it note "This is her address"

I give it to Elena "I don't want to know about her"

Elena asks "What about Isobel?"

Jenna says "I couldn't find anything about her"

I say "Very good, we can forget about her, nothing happens"

Elena looks disheartened as she sits down at the table. 

Jenna briefly pauses before divulging new information. 

Elena says "You don't want to know her"

I say "She left us and moved on so why I will know her, I will be 22 soon and she didn't ask about us for 18 years, yeah" I hold Elena's shoulders "Why do I care about her, so our parents in my eye are Miranda and Grayson Gilbert"

Jenna says "Maybe she has a reason, Lee"

I look at Jenna "No who gives birth once and gives birth to another baby she was living normally"