After an hour or two, the girl stirred and her eyes fluttered open. Both the brothers were for a minute mesmerized by the clear blue eyes looking up at them. The little girl flinched and drew back probably scared of them. They had been expecting that sort of reaction. 

Her large eyes darted around the room taking in the new surroundings. She saw the broken bottles and the mess and the look on her face was clearly horrified. "I...d-didn't break...th-these. I d-didn't," she stuttered. 

Both of them were surprised. "Of course we know you didn't," Damon replied. 

The girl stared at him as if not expecting that answer, "so y-you...you aren't g-gonna p-punish...me?" 

Stefan replied, "of course not." 

When Damon bent down to adjust the blanket, she very nearly screamed. She was definitely very scared. He gently took her hand in his even though she was reluctant and slightly trembling, "I'm not going to hurt you, little one. You don't have to be scared of us. We are your friends and we won't punish you because you did nothing wrong." 

Stefan realized that he was compelling the girl to stop being afraid of them and it worked. The girl relaxed a bit. She let Damon hold her hand and her trembling stopped. Damon nodded at Stefan to fetch something to eat for her and he went in the kitchen returning with a bowl of popcorn and some sweets. 

"Sorry, but we don't have any other kind of food right now," he told her while she just mumbled a low thank you. He knew Damon was doing some very serious thinking. 

"I need to talk to you for a moment," he whispered to Stefan and led him aside while the girl was eating the popcorn hungrily. 

Once out of hearing Damon spoke, "I don't particularly like the looks of it, brother. The child has been abused and that's as clear as anything. She's too young and too scared and definitely doesn't deserve this behavior. Did you notice she can't even form words correctly?" 

Stefan nodded, "I can see that too. We must go to the Sheriff tomorrow." 

He rolled his eyes, "and then what? She'll be returned to her guardians and clearly that's not the solution I want. What I think is that returning her to her parents or guardians whatever won't be a good option. Because she has been abused and definitely the one's in charge of her are responsible for that," then dropping his voice to an inaudible whisper, he added, "I swear if I find out I'm going to teach those psychotics a well deserved lesson." 

Stefan was taken aback at his sudden outburst, "well yeah you're right. Calm down a bit now, will you?" 

Damon shot him a glare but stopped when he saw the large blue eyes staring at him. Obviously he didn't want to scare the little one so he put on a smile on his face and went back in the living room. 

"Shall I fetch something else for you to eat?" Stefan asked kindly but she shook her head in a no. 

Damon spoke, "you might be sleepy, we've a lot of bedrooms here. You can choose yours." 

She looked confused, "what's that?" 

He replied, "a place where you can sleep. Comfortably." 

She spoke, "I'm fine here. Don't wanna trouble you." 

He gently lifted her up and carried her to the spare bedroom, "who said you are causing me any trouble?" 

Stefan took the bowl back in the kitchen still wondering about the sudden change in Damon's behavior towards the girl. He hadn't expected him to be so nice with children and just as good at handling kids. 

Up in the room, Damon gently placed her on the bed and propped up some cushions to support her dainty figure. She was highly confused since she had been used to people being cruel with her and all this kindness was a new experience for her. 

When he was about to switch off the light she spoke, "please don't. I'm scared of the dark." 

He realized and said, "alright. I'll leave the lamp on." 

She asked, "where are you going? Please don't leave me alone. She would come at any moment. Please don't go or she would hit me." 

Damon was surprised, "who is she?" 

She trembled at the mention of the name even, "she is not v-very nice. S-she says to people that... she's my M-Mommy, but I know she's n-not. She hurts me." 

The child was shaking with fear. He instinctively wrapped his arms around the girl to comfort her, "hey hey little one, don't be afraid. I promise that whoever she is, she won't come here and if she does she will get what she deserves. I won't let her hurt you now." 

She was trying to hold back tears, "thank you." 

He tucked her up in the blankets and persuaded her to sleep. When he was perfectly sure that she was sound asleep he switched off the lights and went downstairs.

***