Book One: Panacea (A. Saltzman)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Diana sits on the deck of the Gilbert lake house. Icarus flies around above her. Free whilst she's out here. She lets out a breath and looks up at him, a smile on her lips. It's been a refreshing two weeks out here. And just what she needed to get her head back on straight. It just all threw her for a loop. Alaric. Derek. The vampires. X. It was a lot to deal with in such a short amount of time. She stands and heads inside.

..............

Diana picks up her cell phone from the kitchen counter as she passes it, she then dials, pacing the floor slightly as she waits for the other end to pick up. She hears the click and nods.

"We need to talk" Diana states into the phone. "Come to the lake house" She then hangs up without waiting for an answer. She lowers her phone and stares at the wall in front of her. It is covered in print outs and strings and information about 'Isobel Peterson'. She caved and did what X asked of her. Her curiosity got the better of her. And what she found, changes everything.

...................

Diana glances at Elena as she walks into the lake house, the two of them sharing a look. Elena can see that this time away has changed Diana, there is something harder in her eyes. Something fiercer. They haven't spoken since she left. Despite all the times Elena has called her. Anything she heard about Diana came through Jenna.

"Have you heard from Bonnie?" Diana asks her, Elena shakes her head. Both of them have been worried about their friend. After the whole tomb thing, Sheila died. She died for those vampires. That's one of the reasons for Diana's change. A reinforcement of her duty.

"No, nothing...you?" Elena counters.

"Not for a while" Diana admits. Bonnie had stayed with her for a few days after Sheila's funeral before moving on again, heading off to stay with her aunt. But that was the last time Diana spoke and saw her.

"What did you want to talk about?" Elena asks her.

"I did some digging" Diana offers as she stands from the couch. "Into your adoption"

"You did?" Elena asks her, surprised that she had done so. Diana nods a little.

"I needed a project" Diana admits. "I got bored" Elena smiles a little. Though it is a lie, Elena doesn't seem to notice that. And to be fair, it is very highly likely that Diana did cave into X's request because she got bored.

"So" Elena whispers, not sure how she feels about this, or if she wants to know. "What did you find?"

"Dad kept everything from his medical practice. Records, logs, old appointment books." Diana explains. "So that's where I started" she nods for Elena to follow her and then leads her into the back room where she's been working. Elena's eyes widen seeing the extensive research on the wall. Diana moves to the wall and taps a piece of paper. "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 her, Diana raises an eyebrow.

"Pregnant teenage runaway?" Diana asks, Elena nods a little in understanding. "First name, maybe. But where'd she get Peterson? Classmate? Best friend? So I binged it." She moves along the wall, following the red string to a print out of her search results. "So I searched for all the Petersons in the 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 Mystic Falls"

"Yeah" Diana agrees. "Here," She points to an image of Isobel from high school. Elena looks up at the photo and smiles a little.

"Isobel" She whispers. "She was a cheerleader."

"Yeah. So I researched the uniform...then hacked into the school system and ran a search for Isobels. Found one that matched: Isobel Flemming" she moves along the wall. "Trudie still lives there" she pulls a note from the wall and hands it to Elena. "This is her address."