tidal waves | damon salvatore ¹

7

"I don't know." Ric said, as he and Jenna tied some kind of banner to a building. Lynn didn't have anything particularly important to be doing, so she was just following her dad and Jenna around. "It's just weird, you know, me being raffled off like a Disney cruise."

"In this town, fundraising is like indentured servitude." Jenna said to the man. "You don't have a choice. Besides, you're a bachelor, and you're eligible, so there you go." She was fumbling with the string at the corner, and Ric reached up to help her.

"Here, let me help you with this." Ric fixed the knot, and then turned to Jenna. Lynn opened her mouth to speak, but Ric had leaned down, and kissed Jenna. The teen's eyes widened, as she quickly looked away and found interest in the building across the street.

"Oh, God." She heard Jenna's voice and turned back to them. "I can't believe I'm gonna do this."

"What?" Ric laughed, slightly, and Jenna continued.

"I am totally gonna ruin this moment, but I- I have to tell you." Lynn stood from the chair that she was sitting on, and made her way to the two adults, and they stood in a small triangle. "Elena recently found out she was adopted, and she's been looking for her birth mother," Jenna's eyes flickered between Ric and Lynn. "Whose name was Isobel."

"Isobel?" Ric asked her, doubtful. "Like my wife?" Jenna nodded. "Isobel never had a baby." Jenna looked confused as Ric said this, and then looked at Lynn.

"Isobel's not my mother." Lynn told her. "We don't exactly like talking about how..." She trailed off. "You know." She concluded, not really knowing how to word what she wanted to say. Jenna nodded in understanding, and then turned back to Ric.

"Are you sure?" Ric nodded. "Not before you were together?"

"Nope. No way." Ric said, and now he seemed like he was convincing himself, more than Jenna. The older woman, then reached into her pocket, and pulled out her phone. She turned on the screen and showed the two a picture of a couple of young girls, dressed in cheer leading outfits. Lynn knew, very well, that one of them was Isobel. Ric took the phone into his hands, and studied the picture, carefully. "Uh, she- uh. She never told me."

There was an awkward silence, as Ric passed the phone back to Jenna. Then he declared he needed to leave, and walked away from the two females. Lynn turned to Jenna, who was giving her a questioning look, and shrugged. She watched her father walk away from them, for a few more seconds, before finally speaking up. "Hey, you know what, I think I'm gonna catch up to him." She turned to Jenna again. "You know, to make sure he's okay." Jenna nodded, and Lynn set off in a jog, after Ric.

❀

"Hey!" At the sound of his daughter's voice, he turned around to face Lynn. "Okay, where are you off to, in such a hurry?" She asked him, slightly out of breath.

"You should have stayed with Jenna." He simply said, then turned around and carried on walking. Lynn opened her mouth to shout what he meant, but when she saw Stefan standing not too far from where her dad was, she ignored his comment, and ran towards him, until she was walking side by side, with Ric. "Or stay with me." The man said, as he looked at the girl, from the corner of his eye.

Before the two were stood in front of the vampire, Ric leaned towards Lynn and whispered, "Don't say a word." Lynn was about to say Stefan probably heard that, but she shrugged it off, and listened to the conversation being exchanged between the two. "Thanks for meeting me." Ric started. "Something's come up."

"Jenna told you." Stefan said, and glanced towards Lynn. She raised her eyebrows at him, and he simply shook his head slightly, and turned back to Ric.