❝same old situation❞
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"WHAT IS SHE DOING HERE?"

"When we killed Elijah, it broke the compulsion and freed the bitch from the tomb."

Charlotte huffed, shaking her head as she eyed Katherine warily from across the room as she mindlessly pilfered through Stefan's things.

"How is that possible?"

Katherine shrugged a shoulder, dragging a finger along a feather. "He's an Original. They have all sorts of special skills."

"I don't want you here," Charlotte and Elena's voices overlap as they turn glares onto their doppelgänger, and Katherine just gives them an amused look in return.

Elena ignores it, looking towards her boyfriend. "Get her out of here,"

"You need me," Katherine tells the girls. "You all do."

"Like hell,"

"We all want the same thing. Klaus dead. Yet here you all are, running around like chickens with their heads cut off."

Charlotte snorts, drawing eyes her way. "We don't want your help."

"And that's incredibly stupid of you," Katherine states, narrowing her eyes at Charlotte. "Do you know where Klaus is? When he's coming? What he looks like?"

Charlotte clenches her jaw, taking a step towards Katherine, and Damon mirrors her, cutting in before she can say anything. "If you know something, say it or get out."

"Fine," Katherine shrugs. "Then I'll just go to the Grill and have some lunch. Maybe Aunt Jenna's free for a bite,"

Charlotte throws her hands up, shaking her head helplessly as she turns to look at her sister and Stefan. "I don't have time for this. I'm late for school already, and I have two tests to take today. Good luck dealing with– this,"

She gestures vaguely at Katherine and snatches her backpack up from the chair she'd dropped it on when she got there, storming past Katherine who flutters her fingers in a wave Charlotte uses all of her restraint to ignore.

It's a beautiful way to start the week, really. Knowing everything's just going to get worse.

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"It was bad, you know, John planted all these seeds about Isobel, and now Jenna knows I'm lying about something."

Elena's face twists unhappily as she listens to Alaric talk. "John's gonna end up dead on the kitchen floor if he's not careful."

"Yeah, well, easier said than done," Alaric purses his lips wryly, turning to face the twins with his bare hand lifted up. "I gave him back his ring. So,"

Charlotte scoffs at the John of it all, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Look, Jenna keeps asking about Isobel. You know, was she murdered? Why haven't they found the body? I mean... how much longer can she stay in the dark?"

Charlotte and Elena wear matching looks of disbelief.

"You think we should tell her the truth?" Elena asks.

"I'm saying I can't be with her and not tell her,"

Charlotte throws her hands up. "Yes, you can. Jenna doesn't need to know about Isobel, because Isobel is irrelevant. She's should be the least of your concerns right now."

Alaric gives her a slightly scolding look. "It's not the kind of relationship I want, Charlotte."

Elena sighs, turning where she's leaned against Ric's desk to look at Charlotte. "It's becoming more dangerous for her not to know, Charlie."

Charlotte clenches her jaw, because she knows they're right and it's already something she's thought of herself. She's just trying her best to remain in absolute denial about certain things.

"I just wish..." She trails off, sighing as her sister nods knowingly.

"I thought we'd be able to put it off until after we dealt with Klaus," Elena finishes Charlotte's thought, looking towards Alaric. "Even then... how do we tell someone what we know? How does someone hear that?"

Alaric sighs, looking between the girls apologetically. "I'm sorry to put this on you two. But I feel it's your decision to make. And whatever you decide to do, I'll respect it. I wanna be honest with her, but until then, Jenna and I are done."

Elena and Charlotte look at Ric with wide eyes, but before they can say anything else, the bell rings through the school and they all startle slightly at the reminder that they have to come here five days a week and pretend things are normal.

"Come on," Charlotte mutters, grabbing Elena's arm and wrapping it in hers as they go to the hallway. "I don't want Jenna to be involved in this."

Elena nods as they walk through waves of students going to class, the two of them meandering slowly as they go to their own. "I don't either, but John's just going to keep causing problems if she doesn't know. If we take that away from him, he loses power."

"He wouldn't have any power in the first place, but Stefan doesn't listen," Charlotte huffs.

"I know," Elena winces, irritation flickering at the reminder of her boyfriend's actions. "He's just trying to help."

"Everybody keeps saying that, but things are just getting worse," Charlotte says, pulling her arm out of Elena's as they approach the classroom. "Look, I don't want to tell Jenna, but I'm smart enough to know that it might be necessary, not just for her and Ric, but for her safety. You can make up your mind later. Maybe try to talk to Jenna first and see how she feels about the whole situation first, before we go telling secrets."

"Yeah," Elena sighs tiredly, giving her sister a weak smile. "What are you doing after school?"

Charlotte's cheeks flush and she shrugs a shoulder mindlessly. "Going to the Grill with Cory,"

Elena's brows raise and she eyes her sister's reddening cheeks curiously. "Did I suddenly forget the past few years of Cory's horrible boyfriends? Are you blushing over Cory?"

Charlotte lunges forward, slapping her sister's arm, earning an outraged noise from the other girl. "Shush! Just– shush!"

"Oh, my god, you're lying to me," Elena's eyes widen and she gasps in shock. "You're lying to me about who you're hanging out with after school. Is it– oh,"

"Hey, Charlie," Dylan cuts in obliviously to the twin's whispered bickering, smiling as he approaches their classroom. His eyes drift to Elena, who looks between him and her sister knowingly. "Hey, Elena, how are you?"

Elena purses her lips, trying to hide her amused smile at Charlotte's mortified look. "You know, Dylan, I am doing really, really good. I'd love to stay and talk, but I have to go deal with Mr. Story's joke of a Spanish class. You two have fun, though– but not too much fun!"

"I'm putting Nair in your shampoo when I get home, you traitor," Charlotte spits at her sister through gritted teeth, no real vitriol in her voice as Elena flutters her fingers in a wave and walks down the hallway giggling.

Sniffing lightly and turning away from Elena's retreating figure, she smiles up at Dylan, who's watched the entire exchange amusedly. "Hi,"

"Hi," He echoes, gesturing for her to walk into the classroom first. She does so with a silent nod of thanks, leading them to their shared desk in the middle row. "Do I even want to ask what that was about, or should I just file it under your freaky twin powers?"

"If you care about my dignity at all, you won't ask," Charlotte says sweetly, slinging her bag over the back of the chair as she pulls it out and plops down in it, Dylan doing the same beside her.

"Well, lucky for you, your dignity is all that I care about,"

Charlotte rolls her eyes even as she blushes, because she doesn't really know what to do with herself when he says things like that, that make her stomach flutter with excitement. Genuine excitement, with no fear or baggage attached to it. As she grabs her pencil out of the side of her bag, she gives him a teasing look. "How noble of you,"

"Noble is actually my middle name,"

Charlotte raises a brow at him and he folds easily, shaking his head.

"It's actually Ray, but that's boring compared to noble,"

Charlotte's eyes widened and she let out a disbelieving huff. "Your middle name is Ray? Are you serious?"

Dylan narrows his eyes at her shock, tilting his head. "Yes...?" He draws the answer out like there's a question mark on the end of it.

"Mine is, too," Charlotte says quietly, brown eyes flicking between his. "Rae."

His brown eyes light up with fondness and Charlotte feels those butterflies in her stomach again when he gently lays his hand over hers on the desk. She thinks about the fact that anybody could look at them and see this affection for what it was, and no one would judge them or punish her for being with Dylan. She wouldn't be repeating the past by being with Dylan, she wouldn't be a ghost of a face to anybody in Dylan's life, holding Dylan's hand.

"Really?" He laughs quietly, glancing to the front of the classroom as the teacher gets up from the desk and shuts the door, the last bell ringing as he goes. "That is... honestly insane,"

"I think our parents just lacked originality," Charlotte deadpans, still smiling too sweetly to deliver it properly. "Maybe they found the same baby name book or something."

"That's way less romantic then, like, fate or something," His fingers twitch on top of hers, tone light and taunting. "Where's the romance, Charlotte? I'm a delicate soul, I refuse to be in a loveless relationship,"

Charlotte shakes her head and smiles, lets her heart pound because he can't hear it, and silently scoots her chair in closer so that her shoulder is pressed up against his bicep even as she takes her hand away from his to get her pencil out and start writing notes from the chalkboard. "Fine. It was fate, then, Dylan Ray,"

He presses his arm back just as firmly against hers, scribbling down the same equations from the board. "It absolutely was, Charlotte Rae,"

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"No, I think that... is that... Caroline?"

Dylan tilts his head inquisitively, his sentence trailing off as confusion floods him. His change of course makes Charlotte frown and she turns around to follow the direction of his gaze, her own confusion appearing alongside a heavy serving of shock. "Uh... yes?"

Her eyes drift over the crowded room, catching on two familiar figures separated from them by the crowd. "My sister and Bonnie are here, too, I guess. That definitely doesn't explain why Caroline is on stage, though,"

"I'm interested in seeing where it's going," Dylan shrugs, standing firm as Charlotte turns and leans her back against his chest, letting him drape his arms over the front of her as Caroline grabs the microphone.

"Hey, everybody, let's hear it for the band!" Caroline's voice rings out through the bar and another round of cheers echoes through the room, Charlotte's own reluctantly amused clapping joining in.

She pulls the mic closer to her mouth, wrapping her hand around it as she looks around the room. "So, there's this guy, and, uh... he told me to tell him how I feel about him. Like it's so easy," Caroline chuckles lightly. "Um, you know, doesn't mean I always know what I'm actually talking about. Oh, like now, I'm feeling loopy and I don't really know how to express myself,"

Charlotte brings a hand up to press her fingers against her mouth, a mixture of secondhand embarrassment and concern washing over her.

The frontman for the band goes to grab the microphone stand from Caroline, but she stops him, pulling it out of his grasp. "Uh, I can sing. Yeah– you know what? I'm gonna sing."

The band member seems to say something to Caroline that nobody else can hear, and Charlotte watches the blonde vampire turn to face him, looking up at him with a focused gleam in her eye that tells Charlotte she's compelling him. She squirms uncomfortably against Dylan's chest, forcing herself to relax when he tilts his head down to look at her questioningly.

"Is this something she does often?" Dylan asks, making Charlotte immediately shake her head.

"No, I... I mean she's definitely put on some shows at sleepovers and stuff, but– she is a pageant girl at her core. This isn't the most shocking thing she could've done for Matt."

Dylan nods, taking in the information, and they fall silent again as the guitar begins to strum, Caroline's eyes fixated on one spot across the room, undoubtedly the man she's trying to apologize to right now.

"Close your eyes, give me your hand, darling. Do you feel my heart beating?"

"She's not bad," Dylan says, earning a nod from Charlotte.

"Do you understand? Do you feel the same? Am I only dreaming? Is this burning an eternal flame?"

Charlotte smiles slightly, swaying with Dylan as he moves them back and forth.

"I believe it's meant to be, darling. I watch you when you are sleeping, you belong with me. Do you feel the same? Am I only dreaming? Is this burning an eternal flame?"

Charlotte's phone vibrates in her pocket and she shifts, pulling it out to see a call from Damon lighting up her screen.

"Say my name, sun shines through the rain. A whole life so lonely, you come and ease the pain, I don't want to lose this feeling, oh, no,"

Charlotte watches it ring for another minute, thumb hovering over the answer button, and Dylan jostles her slightly, immediately apologizing.

"Sorry," He huffs. "Is everything okay?"

She opens her mouth to respond but is cut off by cheers, and she looks up at the stage just in time to see Matt smile and dip Caroline down and pull her back up into a kiss.

She makes a shocked noise, a slight laugh leaving her before she turns to look up at him. "It's fine, I should go call him back, though,"

"Okay," He smiles, stepping back from her. "Do you wanna stick around?"

"We can head out soon, if you wanna go start the car. I'll–"

"I am paying the tab, don't even try," He points an accusing finger at her and she holds her hands up in surrender, laughing as she walks away to find somewhere less crowded to call Damon back. "This is a date, I'm dating you. I work here! I get the employee discount, please let me use it,"

"Fine, fine!" Charlotte rolls her eyes, turning away as she shakes her head fondly. She quickly makes to redial Damon's number, pressing the phone to her ear as it rings. "Damon?"

"Charlotte, where are you?"

"Uh, the Grill, why?"

Damon groans, muttering a curse under his breath. "Okay, you need to leave, now. Just– run and come to my house, okay?"

Charlotte's slight smile fell and she stopped near a section of tables, frowning. "What? Why? Damon, what's going–"

Charlotte's cut off by a chorus of shocked yells and she flinches as sparks fly around the room, encasing everyone in darkness.

"Charlotte? Charlotte, are you there?"

She swallows roughly, heart immediately pounding. "Yeah, I– the power just went out, I think there was a power surge or something,"

"No, it wasn't a power surge. Luca is dead, Dr. Martin is coming for you and Elena. You need to leave."

The girl inhaled sharply, looking around the room helplessly for her sister in the darkness. "Damon, I can't leave Elena here,"

"Stefan is there, he should be getting her out. I'm on my way, but if I'm not there in time, you need to run, okay? I need you to get the hell out of dodge."

"Okay," Charlotte breathes out, trying to control her racing pulse. "Okay, I..." She trails off, looking at the confused crowd starting to get restless. "Dylan."

"What?"

"My– my friend," Charlotte stutters helplessly, turning in a circle, grunting as someone bumps into her roughly. "My date. I was here on a date, I can't leave–"

"Charlotte, listen to me, you have to go, now," Damon cuts her off, a restlessness in his voice that makes her antsy. "I'm–"

The shattering of glass cuts off the rest of Damon's response and Charlotte is jostled harshly by the panicked crowd, her grip faltering on her phone as she tries to catch herself before she hits the ground. She feels her phone fly out of her hand, no doubt landing uselessly on the floor somewhere. In the split second between the dozens of glasses shattering, it's followed by flames burning hot, like they'd been burning for hours already along the entire length of the bar.

Screams echo out and Charlotte winces, looking around at the flame-shadowed room as people sprint to every available exit, pushing through any resistance. Charlotte, helpless to do anything but follow the stampede, lets herself be pushed out the doors into the cold night air, the heat of the flames gone so suddenly she flinches as she stumbles away from the hordes of people, catching her breath.

"Charlotte! Charlotte, thank God," Dylan's voice makes her stand up straight and she snaps around to face him, a noise of sheer relief leaving her lips as he wraps her into a tight hug. "Jesus, I couldn't find you, I was terrified,"

"I'm okay," She breathes out, squeezing him tighter before they let one another go. "Are you? Were you still in there when the fire started?"

"I was paying the bill, got swept up in a group of people running out the side door," He gestures vaguely to the building, still keeping his eyes on her. "I tried to come back in to find you, but nobody would let me."

Charlotte shakes her head, pressing a hand to her forehead. "It's okay, I'm okay. We're– we're fine,"

"I saw your sister and Stefan get out a minute ago, but I don't know where they went."

Charlotte nods, having had no doubt in her mind that Stefan would get Elena out safely. "It's– my phone," Charlotte realizes suddenly, breathing out tiredly. "Someone bumped into me and I dropped my phone in there. I– I was talking to Damon, he's probably freaking out,"

"Here," Dylan is quick to pull his cell phone out of his pocket, thrusting it at her. "If you know his number, just call him from mine. Let him know you're okay. Your sister, too,"

Charlotte belatedly takes his phone, looking at him in surprise before she shakes it off. "Uh– thank you. Thanks, I'm just–" She gestures behind her and he nods, letting her walk away from him for some semblance of privacy.

She quickly dials Damon's number and presses the phone to her hear, biting her tongue harshly as it rings a few too many times. She almost thinks he won't answer, but the call picks up and she squeezes her eyes shut in relief. "Damon?"

There's a momentary pause, and then hesitant relief. "Charlotte?"

"I'm okay,"

Damon lets out a harsh breath. "What the hell happened?"

"I– he set the bar on fire. People panicked, I got bumped into and my phone fell out of my hand. After that, I just got out before he could find me. I–I'm okay, Damon, I don't even have a scratch on me. I– I think everyone's fine. I just wanted you to know."

"Okay," Damon sighs, and Charlotte can picture him nodding like he's mentally repeating it to himself. "Okay. You can't go home yet, okay? Stefan and Katherine are gonna handle Dr. Martin, so just don't go home yet."

"Wh– Katherine is helping?" Charlotte asks incredulously, face twisting. "Damon–"

"I'll explain later, alright? Just stay away from your house until it's handled."

Charlotte wants to question him further and she knows he knows that, too, but she stifles it with a sigh and nods even though he can't see her. "Okay. Okay, I'll talk to you later, then."

She ends the call without waiting for another response and goes to call Elena next, but instead she turns back around and crosses the few feet of distance between her and Dylan to hand him his phone back. Clearing her throat, she looks up at him inquisitively. "Can you take me to Stefan's house? That's– it's where Stefan and Elena are going, and I want to make sure they're alright."

Dylan nods, taking his phone back with a slight smile. "Yeah, of course."

Charlotte tries not to feel bad about lying. It doesn't really work.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Damon really doesn't like when Charlotte doesn't have a phone. It's certainly not the first one she's lost in recent months, so it's not anything new to any of them, but it doesn't mean he isn't wildly inconvenienced by it all the same. If only, he tells himself, because it makes it harder to locate her in times of stress like these. He knows she's alright, knows she probably went to her boyfriend's house, or Cory's, waiting for the all-clear. But the limbo of uncertainty makes him itch and he grimaces as he shrugs his jacket off his shoulders as he walks upstairs to his bedroom.

He stops short at the sight of a curled up figure laying on his bed, and for a moment he tenses, preparing for a fight, but he takes a few more steps towards his bed and all of his tension drains from him.

He steps up to the side of the bed, looking down at Charlotte's sleeping form curled up with half of her face pressed into his pillow, and he sighs, face undoubtedly fond. He reaches down, brushing a stray curl off of her face where it had fallen across her chin, tucking it back with the rest of them.

Pulling his hand away almost hastily, his fingers twitch above her and he steps back, tossing his jacket over a chair with an eye roll. It's almost embarrassing, what she does to him.

Damon finds himself joining her on the bed, propped up beside her sleeping figure as he reads through more of Johnathan Gilbert's journals, finding it simultaneously hard to take a trip down memory lane, and wildly baffling to read the ramblings of the deranged man he'd become with time.

He doesn't know how much time passes before the silence is broken by the much less favorable version of the girl beside him. Damon doesn't acknowledge Katherine's arrival in his room, watching her approach the bed with a look on her face that was palpable with unhappiness at the sight of Charlotte asleep in his bed. She draped herself dramatically on the chaise at the end of the bed, letting the short silk robe fall off her shoulder as she shook her hair out, putting on a show for him.

"You know what I've always wondered?" Damon prompts, pressing his thumb into the smeared ink of the journal page.

Katherine, seemingly happy to have his attention despite Charlotte's sleeping presence, raises her eyebrows. "What's that?"

"How the town knew Emily Bennett was a witch," Damon says, nonchalantly, seeing Katherine freeze for a moment out of his peripheral. "I mean, because according to Johnathan Gilbert, he was the only one who knew. I know he didn't turn her in,"

For many reasons, of course, the biggest one being that the vampire-killing insane person that he was still managed to fall in love with a witch. Damon can, unfortunately, appreciate irony if given the chance.

He looks up at Katherine finally, meeting her gaze, and she twirls her hair around her finger, shrugging a shoulder innocently. He sighs shortly, rolling his eyes back down to the journal in his lap. "I should've figured as much."

Katherine flicks her hand out away from her hair, huffing. "She was a loose end. I like mine tied up. But, you know what I can't figure out?"

"Do I care?"

Katherine ignores the rhetorical question. "Why you won't tell me where to find the site of the witch massacre."

Damon looks up at her with narrowed, disinterested eyes. "Because I have no clue,"

"You knew that Emily Bennett was the key to getting me out of that tomb. And something tells me you did everything in your power to make sure that she was safe, yet you have no idea where she was killed."

Damon doesn't say anything, shrugging a shoulder carelessly like she did moments ago.

Katherine fixes him with a look. "Who's the liar now?"

Damon doesn't acknowledge her, and she rolls her eyes, gaze darkening as her attention flickers to the human at his side, breathing deeply in her sleep. She looks back at Damon, narrowing her eyes. "You hurt me today."

"Tit for tat,"

Katherine huffs. "You were mean. And very rough. And very monstrous," She shifts up onto her knees, leaning over onto the foot of the bed just enough for her weight to indent the mattress as she looked up at him.

Damon looked at her blankly. "You deserved it."

"I like this Damon," She wraps a hand around his knee, starting to trail her fingers up his thigh.

"Katherine," He says her name quietly and she smirks in satisfaction. "Katherine, there are six other bedrooms in this house."

He puts the journal down just long enough to wrench her hand off of his leg and throw it back towards her, shocking her enough that she sits back completely, face flooding with offense. "Go find one."

Katherine scoffs as she stands up, righting the silk robe over her black nightgown, watching Damon's attention shift to Charlotte as she stirs beside him.

The human doppelgänger mutters something unintelligible and reaches a hand out, laying it on his forearm. "Damon? Is that you?"

Damon tilts his head down to look at Charlotte's still half-asleep form, and he rests a hand atop her head, gently brushing her hair back. "Yeah, Charlotte, it's me,"

Charlotte hums and her face smoothes out for another second, her hand staying wrapped around his arm. Damon keeps his eyes on her unflinchingly, and Katherine scoffs to herself at the sight, shaking her head as she finally walks out of his bedroom.

"She didn't really think that would work, did she?" Charlotte asks quietly, earning a breathy chuckle from Damon.

"I knew you woke up as soon as she walked in here, you sneaky little brat,"

Charlotte blinks her eyes open, looking up at him. "I'm assuming everything with Dr. Martin went okay?"

"That's a way to put it," Damon mutters, closing the journal and setting it to the side. "He's dead. It had to happen."

"It always does," She says, no particular tone to her words in a way that almost concerns Damon. "Other than that, though?"

"The only true loss tonight was another one of your cellphones, I'm afraid,"

Charlotte huffs, pressing her face back into the pillow. "Jenna's gonna kill me,"

Damon waves a hand through the air. "Don't worry, I'll get you a new one. I can get you a really good discount,"

She stares up at him, narrowing her eyes slightly. "Is it just you compelling me a free phone from some innocent employee somewhere?"

Damon smirks down at her, unspeaking.

She sighs, like she knows it's unavoidable. "Can you text Elena and make sure she knows I'm still here? I used Dylan's phone to text her, but after he dropped me off here, I didn't have a way to get ahold of her."

"Sure thing," He turns, grabbing his phone off of the nightstand beside his bed. "So, Dylan. He's the bartender, right?"

Charlotte's fingers not on Damon's arm dig into the fabric of his sheets. "Yeah, we've gone out a few times."

"You make it official yet? I mean, I can't imagine why you'd wait,"

"Are you and Andie official yet?" Charlotte inquires, her tone as biting as his is, poorly disguised behind fake nonchalance. "She seems like a real winner for you, Damon."

Damon looks down at her with a piercing gaze that she mirrors right back up at him unflinchingly. For a moment, neither of them say a word, stuck in a stalemate of too much that's already been said, and still too much that hasn't been said.

It's broken by Damon's phone going off a few times in quick succession and he bites out an irritated sigh as he turns his attention to it, reading the several texts from Elena that are coming through.

"Oh, no," He sits up on the bed, making Charlotte scramble to do the same, all of her tired irritation gone in the wake of concern and panic.

"What? What is it?"

Damon looks up at her, something pitying in his eyes that makes her stomach churn. "Isobel is back. And she just showed up on your front porch."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

author's note; ok back into my cave

edited and published; 10.8.24. 

- liz