Complicated ↠ Damon Salvatore [1]

16

"I thought you were going to knock first?" Elena asked in a whisper.

Echo sighed and knocked on the door, and a moment later, when she saw Elena about to turn to leave, a blonde woman answered. "Trudie? Trudie Peterson?" Echo asked, staring the woman in the eyes.

"Yes?" The women looked questionably at the girls.

"Uh, my name is Elena Gilbert. This is my twin, Echo. We wanted to talk to you about Isobel Fleming."

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

"I think that, well, um, we think that... do you know if she had two twins that she gave up for adoption?"

"My god!" Trudie exclaimed. "You're her daughter's. I was just gonna make some tea. Would you like some?"

Echo smiled a little. "How about something stronger?" Elena nudged her in the ribs. "I-I mean, tea sounds great."

"Uh, the kitchens this way," Trudie said to the girls, and watched as they stepped through the threshold.

They made their way to the table and sat down when Trudie started with the tea.

"We're sorry for just barging in," Elena said after a second of awkward silence.

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

"When was the last time you saw her?" Echo asked, going in hunter mode.

"About 17 years ago, when she left to have you girls. We kept in touch for a while, but, well, you know, people drift apart."

"Yeah, I know that feeling," Echo said, crossing her arms.

"And you don't know where she ended up?" Elena 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 our father is?" Echo asked, dying to know the answer. She wanted to know if the hot new history teacher was their father.

"I could never get her to fess up," Trudie admitted. "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," she explained just as the kettle finished boiling the water. "Let me just grab that."

"AH, they came to the games for us. The football team hasn't won in years," Trudie told the girls about their birth mother. "We were the stars. Well, Lizzie was. But I was a damn good back up."

Echo and Elena chuckled. "This is great. Thank you."

"You're welcome." She glanced down at their untouched tea and frowned. "You girls haven't touched your tea."

"Oh, I forgot. We were talking so much about her, and you know," Echo said, actually surprised that she was this invested in someone she doesn't know. She brought the tea up to her lips, and the first thing she smelt was herbs. Not just any herbs. Vervain. She twisted her eyebrows as she looked into her glass, and saw bits floating at the bottom of it. "What is this?" She asked, glancing up at Trudie.

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

Echo scoffed and sat the tea down. "Strike one." She looked Trudie in the eyes. "Vervain. You know."

"Know what?" Trudie asked, playing dumb.

"You didn't invite us in, and you're serving tea with vervain. You know." Echo crossed her hands and sat them on the table.