❝in this house of pain.❞
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

THE CAR SPED ALONG THE ROAD SMOOTHLY, AND CHARLOTTE WATCHED THE TREES GO BY SILENTLY. She sat with her knees tucked to her chest, her chin resting on them as Damon kept a loose grip on the steering wheel, occasionally sparing her glances she pretended she didn't feel.

They'd been silent for the better part of the drive, even as they crossed back over into Virginia. Damon had silently given her his phone so she could let Elena and Cory know, but other than that, there's been nothing but silence.

It's not exactly uncomfortable, but it's also not comfortable either. There's a tension sitting between the two, weighing their tongues down and preventing either from speaking even a sliver of the thoughts rolling around their minds.

As if reading her mind and sensing the disdain for conversation, Damon heaves a heavy sigh that only adds to the tension in the car.

"So," He purses his lips, sparing her another quick glance. "Are we gonna talk about anything that's happened in the past 32 hours?"

"No,"

"Charlotte,"

Charlotte shrugged, tilting her head to rest her cheek on her knees, still facing away from Damon. "I don't know what you want me to say, Damon."

"Then I'll start. You're mega-pissed at me and Stefan for lying to you and Elena about the whole Katherine thing, and rightfully so. But you're never going to speak up on behalf of yourself, all you're going to do is defend Elena, which means you'll just keep pretending like everything is okay like you always do. Am I close?"

He gets no response, and for a moment he thinks she'll just ignore him, but she quickly proves him wrong.

"Did you only want to be around me because I looked like her?"

Her voice is weak, and Damon hears the emotion in it despite how much she tries to hide it. His easy look quickly melts into one of concern, and even brief guilt, but he quickly shoves it away.

Abruptly, he slows the car and pulls off onto a gravel road, stopping the vehicle altogether. "Charlotte, look at me."

Slowly, she turns her head, and reveals her glassy eyes, wide and full of hurt. "I just– you're my friend, Damon. You're the only person that doesn't treat me like I'm a freak about to snap at any given moment, and even though you're a total ass sometimes and you do stupid stuff, I like having you around. I like you, Damon. So if the only reason you've been hanging around is because you miss Katherine, then I'd rather pretend none of this ever happened so I can keep being your friend."

"Look at me,"

Charlotte drags her eyes up to meet his and she twists her quivering lips, holding her legs tighter to her chest.

"Any similarities between you and Katherine stop at your looks. They stop there." His tone brokers no argument, and he stares at her, unblinking. "Of course I freaked the hell out when I first saw you, but every minute I've spent with you since then has been because of you. Not her."

He shifts, fully facing her. "And I don't know if you know this or not, but people don't really want to be my friend. So I'm not going to screw up the opportunity to be friends with the Charlotte Gilbert."

Charlotte huffs a weak laugh, shaking her head where it rests against her knees. "Thank you, Damon."

"Anytime. And, you know," Damon shrugs, sitting back in his seat properly again. "You still owe me like four questions, and I don't forget about people that owe me debts."

Rolling her eyes, Charlotte relaxed back into her seat, her eyes following the trees as they pulled back onto the road. "I saved your life last night," She turns to him, raising a brow. "I feel like that repays anything I could owe you."

Damon looks at her, his eyes narrowing contemplatively before he shakes his head. "No, it's not that easy, sunshine. You'll have to try harder than that to get rid of me."

The girl smiled, pulling her sleeves over her hands as she dropped her legs down from the seat. "If anything, you should have to save my life again. I feel like that's the logical procession here,"

"How about we just keep you far away from any more near-death experiences, yeah? That sounds like a plan to me."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"Charlotte!"

The eldest Gilbert punches out a breath of relief when Jeremy and Elena encase her in a hug and she wraps her arms around them both, squeezing tight. She opens her eyes from where they'd fallen shut and looks up, meeting Damon's gaze to where he remains parked on the curb in front of her house.

A smile graces her face and Damon mirrors it, though his is more amused than it is relieved like hers. Her lips part and she silently mouths, "Thank you," and the words make him nod. He lifts a hand in fleeting farewell and pulls away, driving off into the dusk that awaits him.

"What happened, Charlie?"

Jeremy and Elena both pull away from her, looking over her inquisitively. Charlotte sighs, giving them a grimace of a smile. "I... wrecked my car,"

There's a moment of silence before the chaos ruptures and Charlotte purses her lips at the expected outbursts from her siblings.

"Are you kidding?"

"And you just left the state?!"

"Are you alright? Did you get hurt?"

Charlotte gives them a moment before she raises her hand, silencing them effectively. "Look, I... went somewhere last night, and when I left, I was driving a bit recklessly and I didn't see this dog in the road before it was too late. I tried to swerve, but I ended up just hitting it and it spun my car out of control."

She swallows, feeling a brief wave of nausea as her mind helplessly reminds her that it was no dog she hit, but a vampire. One that was out to get her.

"I got lucky, and was only a little scraped up. Damon found me, and helped me get out of the car, and he asked if I wanted to come home. I'm the one that told him no, so he offered to take me on his little road trip. I promise that I'm okay, Lena. Damon would never hurt me, he saved my life."

Elena looks uneasy still, and Charlotte knows she'll probably demand the truth once Jeremy is out of earshot, but Charlotte knows she'll still give her mere parameters of truth. There's no reason Elena needs to know everything, it would only make her panic more, and Charlotte doesn't want to add onto the pile of things Elena's already dealing with.

Sighing, she turns to Jeremy and gives him another hug, ruffling his hair as she pulls away. "I'm alright, guys. Promise."

Her little brother looks reluctant to agree but he does eventually, stepping past her to head back into the house.

"Are you really okay, Charlie?"

The girl looks back to her twin, smiling somewhat sadly. "I'm fine, Elena. I always am." Her dark eyes meet matching ones and she raises a brow. "Have you– have you talked to Stefan?"

Elena shakes her head, face shuddering with hurt as she drops her gaze to the ground. "No, he's tried to call a few more times. I just don't know what there is to say."

Charlotte is reminded of her own conversation with Damon earlier, and how she'd echoed a similar sentiment. Huffing out a breath, Charlotte rests a hand on her sister's shoulder, squeezing it softly. "Look, you don't owe him anything, Elena. In fact, if you told me you never wanted to see him again, I'd completely understand and probably encourage it. But I think that you should talk to him, even if it means you two break up for good. It isn't good to keep all of this bottled up, and I know that you want answers, Elena. You deserve them, at the least."

"Yeah,"

"And look at it this way, if you two break up for good, I'll have slapped him for good reason."

"What?" Elena rears back, looking at her sister incredulously. "You slapped him?! When?!"

Charlotte grimaces, waving her off. "Look, I might've gone over there last night after you went to bed and yelled at Stefan, but you can't tell me it wasn't deserved! He was an ass!"

"So you slapped him?"

"Well, duh! You're my little sister, I'd slap anyone for you!"

Elena looks shocked for another brief moment before she's overtaken by laughter, the sound spilling into the slowly setting night. Charlotte joins in on her laughter, and the twins clutch onto each other as they quiet, steadying themselves once more.

Elena wipes a tear from beneath her eye, shaking her head. "I can't believe you slapped a vampire,"

"It wasn't my brightest moment, but I don't regret it. I'll always protect you, Elena, even if it means slapping super strong teenage vampires when I'm a puny little human."

"Yeah," Elena agrees softly, smiling. "Even if it was sort of dumb... thank you. You're kind of the best sister ever, you know?"

Charlotte groaned dramatically, feigning exasperation. "I know, I deserve a medal or something. That's what I want for Christmas– a trophy that says '#1 Twin'."

Elena slaps a hand out, smacking Charlotte's arm as they start to head back inside. "You know, Cory's been harassing all of us over you. You should probably call him and tell him you're alive."

"Yeah, I'm going to," Charlotte sniffs, smiling smugly. "He doesn't know it yet, but I'm making him take me to get a new car tomorrow– oh, and a new phone."

"What happened to your phone?"

"It was a casualty in the accident, unfortunately. Damon said he looked for it everywhere but couldn't find it."

Elena shakes her head, looking at her sister in slight disbelief. "I still can't believe Damon's the one that found you."

"He saved my life, Elena. He's my friend,"

"Damon doesn't have friends," Elena intones, pushing some of her hair behind her ears. "But he's different around you. It's weird."

"Is it a good weird or a bad weird?"

Elena hesitates, brows furrowing contemplatively before she settles on an answer. "Good weird. It's– it's good, I think."

Charlotte smiles, and it brightens her whole face, like a ray of sunshine just hit her. "Good."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Charlotte and Cory step into her house, Charlotte half-listening to the tail end of Cory's story about a guy from Whitmore that came onto him while he was at work yesterday. Charlotte's smile falters as she stops, finding Jenna and Elena having some sort of standoff at the bottom of the stairs.

"Elena? Jenna? What's going on?" Charlotte steps forward, pocketing her new phone.

Elena snaps her head towards Charlotte, showing off the tears glistening in her eyes. "Did you know that we're adopted? Because Jenna knew the whole time."

Charlotte drops the shopping bags in her hands to the floor, hearing Cory mutter a curse behind her. She blinks rapidly, feeling the burn of tears grow in her eyes. "What? W–What? We're..."

"Charlie..."

Charlotte steps away from Jenna as Elena storms up the stairs to her room, and she turns towards Cory, a pleading look in her eye. "Let's go– I need to– I need to go, let's go, Cory,"

"Okay," Cory nods, grabbing Charlotte's arm gently to guide her back out of the front door they'd just come in. "Okay, Charlie. Let's go. Let's just go."

Cory pulls the door shut firmly behind them, silencing Jenna's call of her name, and he pulls his friend towards his car, sparing a glance back at the house that holds so much of Charlotte's pain.

He wonders if she'll be able to handle much more. 

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

author's note; sorry i haven't updated in a while, it's just that i have a life 

edited and published; 8.21.22. 

- liz