(1) Just Magic (D. Salvatore)

Chapter Sixty-Seven

Cassandra stares out her window, leaning against the wall as the rain comes down outside. She looks tired. And to be fair, she hasn't really been sleeping all that well. Not after...that thing appeared. That reflection. It's been in her dreams too. Talking to her. Asking her questions. But what can Cassandra do but answer them? She figures this is some stress-induced hallucination. So there is no hard in talking to it. Right? It might actually help. Eventually. Not so far but....it's probably a long haul thing. And it's not like she can tell anyone about it all. She's still pissed at Elena for keeping things from her. Same with Stefan, even though things are slightly better with them, she still doesn't like him and more often than not wants to throw his ass out of a window. So she can't talk to either of them. She probably would have talked to Damon about it, but she hasn't seen him since the whole tomb thing, and he's got enough going on without listening to her whine about some hallucination. She's not surprised she hasn't seen him, she knows he is dealing with things. He spent so long planning his revenge. For years. Only for it to go completely tits up at the last step. It's going to suck. She knows how much he was looking forward to it all. So she gives him his space. Leaves him alone. He wants company, he knows where she is. She's not going to get pushy on him.

"Cas!" She turns her head and then leaves her bedroom, heading towards the top of the stairs to find out who is shouting for her.

"Jenna?" She asks seeing the woman at the bottom of the stairs looking up at her. "What's going on?"

"Can you come into the kitchen?" Jenna counters, Cassandra pulls a face but nods.

..........

Jenna and Elena are in the kitchen when Cassandra walks in, pulling her arms through the sleeves of a hoodie. Elena glances at her and then pats the stool at her side. Cassandra takes it and raises an eyebrow.

"What's up?" She asks.

"Do you remember when we talked about your birth parents?" Jenna asks.

"Yeah, that's not something easily forgotten" Cassandra argues.

"Well I did some digging" Jenna admits and then turns to her laptop on the counter and reaches into her bag to pull out a journal. "Your dad kept everything from his medical practice—records, logs, old appointment books." She flicks through the journal and finds the page she is looking for and then holds it out to the twins. "I found an entry from the night you were born. Patient and a birth date. Isobel Peterson"

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

"Pregnant teenage runaway?" Cassandra counters and gives Elena a look. "Probably not"

"First name, maybe" Jenna counters. "But where'd she get Peterson? Classmate? Best friend? So I binged it" She pulls up the Internet on her laptop 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"

"That's not far from here" Elena points out.

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

"Isobel" Elena whispers as she and Cassandra look at the picture with small smiles. Cassandra can see it, the family resemblance, there is a lot of her in the two of them. "She was a cheerleader"

"Trudie still lives there" Jenna hands Cassandra a post-it note. "This is her address"

"What about Isobel?" Cassandra asks as she looks down at the address.

"I couldn't find anything about her" Elena looks disheartened as she sits down at the table. Jenna briefly pauses before divulging new information. "Listen. There's something else. Mr Saltzman, Ric, his wife was from around here, and her name was also Isobel"

"Wait. 'Was,' as in..." Elena starts.

"She died," Jenna tells them both. So close, and yet no further. End of the road. And all the cliché phrases that come with it. They have some answers, but they were never going to be enough.

.........

Elena knows Cassandra is up to something, she knows her sister. So she sits in wait on the porch swing. And she is proven right when Cassandra sneaks out of the house, closing the door silently behind her and then heads down the porch steps towards Jenna's car parked up on the drive. Elena stands and moves to stand at the top of the steps.

"Where do you think you are going?" Elena asks, folding her arms over her chest. Cassandra cringes, caught out. She turns to face Elena.

"To look at a maybe car" Cassandra answers, lies, Elena gives her a look back.

"And that requires Trudie's address?" Elena points to the post-it in Cassandra's hand. Cassandra sighs and looks down at the address.

"Fine. Get in the damn car" Cassandra tells her and heads towards the car. Elena smiles and hurries after her sister.

...........

Cassandra holds up the Post-It note with Trudie's address and then looks up at the house which matches the address. She tucks the post-it into her pocket as Elena takes her other hand and squeezes, reassuring her sister that she is here at her side. That they are doing this together. Cassandra looks at her and Elena nods.

"This is gonna suck either way" Cassandra warns. "Whatever answers we get"

"I know" Elena agrees. "But I have you and you have me and that's never going to change. Family is forever"

"Family..." Cassandra can't finish that now. She can't believe in it like she used to. She looks away from Elena.

"Our family is you and me" Elena assures her. "No matter who else joins, or leaves, it's always going to be me and you. No matter what" She promises. "So...family, our family is forever" Cassandra nods.

"Family is forever" She whispers in agreement and squeezes Elena's hand before releasing it. "Come on" Cassandra adds and heads towards the house. Elena takes a deep breath and follows her.