❝the family dynamic❞
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"JEREMY, YOU ARE SO GROUNDED."

Jeremy stands up, turning to look at his oldest sister with wide eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"Damon called me and told me you were trying to get involved in this werewolf nonsense," She gestures to the vampire, making the young boy turn a betrayed look onto him that he rolls his eyes at. "Which he was right to do. What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking that I have every right to help you out with this," Jeremy says, looking at Charlotte pleadingly. "Are you and Elena the only ones allowed to risk your lives?"

Charlotte clenches her jaw, letting out a long breath. "Elena and I don't have a choice, Jeremy. Our literal existence puts us at risk. But you have a choice, and you're still choosing the stupid option."

"I thought you of all people would understand why I want to help,"

"I do, but for my sanity–"

"Ric!" Damon cuts Charlotte off, his eyes darting to the history teacher as he walks into the house with a file box in his arms. "You made it to the soap opera."

The teacher sighs, stopping short at the sight of Jeremy, and the visibly frustrated Charlotte standing before him. "What are you doing here?"

"Helping Damon. I'm the one who found out about the moonstone,"

Alaric looks towards Damon, who shrugs and rolls his eyes, and then looks back at Jeremy. "Does Elena know about this?"

"No, and she's not going to," Jeremy says, pointedly looking at Charlotte.

The Gilbert girl scoffs, throwing her hands up in defeat. "No, no, I'm not lying on your behalf! You wanna do this, then do it. You're a big boy, Jer."

Sensing the oncoming argument between the siblings, Damon steps forward, popping the lid off the box Ric had carried in. "Whatcha got?"

Quickly accepting the subject change, Ric clears his throat. "This is Isobel's research from Duke. Her assistant sent it to me."

"Oh, Vanessa," Damon recalls, looking at Charlotte. "The one that tried to kill you."

Charlotte raised her brows at his pointed words as Alaric sighed.

"Vanessa, yes. Do you remember the Aztec curse she told us about?"

"The Curse of the Sun and Moon?" Charlotte says, her interesting piquing.

Jeremy approaches them, his dark eyes matching his sister's own interest. "Oh, Aztec curse? Cool,"

"Yeah, supposedly vampires and werewolves used to roam freely until a shaman put a curse on them to limit their power. Since then, uh, werewolves can only turn on a full moon and vampires are weakened by the sun."

Damon holds up the hand adorning his daylight ring, wriggling his fingers tauntingly. "Most of them, anyway,"

"According to the legend, the werewolf part of the course, it's sealed with the moonstone."

Jeremy goes to take the crumpled piece of paper from Alaric, but Charlotte snatches it away from him, glaring. "I'm the one that can read it. Don't say a word," She points a finger at him and he sighs but doesn't argue, instead just looking over her shoulder as she scans the paper.

"What do you mean sealed?"

"It's a witch thing," Damon answers his question. "Whatever seals the curse is the key to unsealing the curse."

Charlotte's fingers run along the old paper detailing the curse and she furrows her brows confusedly at the patchy translation she makes of it.

"Maybe Mason believes he can use the moonstone to break the curse,"

Damon scrunches his face up, twisting around to look at them. "If we start believing in some supernatural, witchy-woo legend from a picture book, we're idiots. Who has the stone now?"

"Tyler."

"Can you get it?"

Charlotte glances at the vampire. "Damon,"

"See? Now your life has purpose!"

"Damon,"

Jeremy and Damon both ignore her warning tone. "So you do believe it?"

"It's the same book that says a werewolf bite kills a vampire. Ignoring it would make me an even bigger idiot. Let's go,"

"Where are we going?" Charlotte looks at Damon, her brows raised expectantly.

"To go get the moonstone from Tyler Lockwood's dumbass," Damon says, frowning at her apparent confusion.

The girl rolls her eyes and turns to look at her brother, pointing a stern finger at him. "You're not going,"

"What? Yes I am, I just said I can get the moonstone from Tyler!"

"So could I! So could literally anyone else in this room! You're not going, Jeremy,"

She hears Damon mutter something to Alaric and the two turn and walk towards the front door, prompting the siblings to do the same, their bickering never faltering as they go.

"I'm going,"

"No."

"Charlie,"

"Jeremy,"

"I'm going."

"And I'm going to lock you in the basement," Charlotte hisses, slamming the front door behind her as they step outside.

Jeremy glances at the door, a smug smirk pulling at his lips. "Looks like I'm going,"

Charlotte lunges, shoving him roughly off the front porch. He stumbles backwards, barely catching himself before he falls, and shoots his sister a glare. "Shut up. Get in the car– go!"

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Elena startled when she turned and her sister was standing there, Damon at her side with his arms crossed over his chest. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for my baby bro," Damon shrugged, ignoring the fact that she was talking to Charlotte. "Speaking of, could you tell yours to stop following me around? He's not listening to me or Charlotte."

Elena tilts her head, eyes narrowing as she takes in Damon's irritated tone and Charlotte's frustrated glare. "What's going on?"

"Ask eager beaver," The vampire offers her an unhelpful smirk and walks off, heading for the courtyard where Stefan's talking to Bonnie, and Charlotte pulls Jeremy over by the arm, ignoring his noise of discontent.

Elena looks between her siblings confusedly, pushing her hair behind her ears. "Jeremy, what is he making you do?"

Charlotte scoffed. "He's not making Jeremy do anything."

"Damon and I–"

Elena cuts him off immediately. "Uh, no. No way. No, no, no– there is no 'Damon and you'. There's Damon and whoever Damon's using. And those people? They end up dead. Whatever's going on, Jeremy, I want you to stay out of it."

Jeremy's eyes narrowed slightly. "I don't really care what you want, Elena. It's because of both of you that I'm in this mess in the first place, so, I'm sorry, you don't really get to tell me what I'm gonna do."

Jeremy walks off from the twins without another word, leaving them momentarily speechless in his wake.

Charlotte's irritation at his involvement has quickly washed away into guilt, because she knows it was inevitable that Jeremy get dragged into all of this, and with all of the compulsion and narrow avoidance, it's a miracle that they've managed to achieve it only happening now.

Elena's dark eyes shift back out into the courtyard where Stefan and Damon walk off together, a determined stride to their gait, and she huffs petulantly. "Something's going on."

"What?" Charlotte questions, turning quickly to follow after her sister as she leaves the gazebo, walking down a few steps before plopping down and pulling out her phone. "Elena, maybe you should take your own advice and not get involved,"

"Says who?" Elena raises a brow, sending her text to Stefan. "I just want to know what's going on."

"Yeah, well, maybe we sit this one out," She shrugs, eyes pleading when she looks at her sister. "Maybe we should lead by example and not get involved in the life threatening situations and that way Jeremy will actually listen to us."

"Look, Stefan said he's with Bonnie and Damon. Bonnie and Damon?" Elena echoes incredulously, shaking her phone as she texts him back quickly. "That means something's going on, because they hate each other."

"Right, but Bonnie's the witch and if she's helping the vampires, that means that there's no need for us humans to get involved because we are much, much less durable than any of them," Charlotte huffs, her frustration quickly building again with Elena's insolence.

Elena sighs, the noise almost a groan, and looks at Charlotte. "We're not sitting this one out, Charlie. We don't get to do that. One way or another, we're going to end up involved in it."

She doesn't wait for Charlotte's continued argument before calling Stefan, pressing the phone to her ear with an impatient huff. It barely takes a moment for him to pick up, and Charlotte wishes she could hear what he was saying on the other end.

"I know, but I have no idea what's happening. Damon's got Jeremy into something, you've got Bonnie with you, and I'm sorting stupid masquerade masks for Mrs. Lockwood."

Elena is quiet for a moment, and Charlotte watches her face contort with annoyance and a million other things before she settles with a sigh. "Yeah, alright."

She hangs up and drops her phone into her lap, pressing her fingers into her temples.

"So, what'd he say?"

"That it's something to do with Mason, and they're handling it. He said not to worry about it."

"Wow, great idea," Charlotte slapped her thighs, standing up from the concrete steps. "Let's go sort through stupid masquerade masks."

Elena rolls her eyes but stands, pocketing her phone as she follows her sister into the house, entirely unsatisfied with the outcome of the day.

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Charlotte reaches out with a grunt, pulling Stefan into the study and shutting the door behind him.

Stefan stumbles slightly, looking at her in surprise, but he quickly recovers.

"What are you doing with Mason?"

"Charlotte–"

"I won't tell Elena," She bites out, clenching her jaw. "I know it has something to do with the moonstone, and this morning I was reading a dead language about that curse, so just tell me, Stefan,"

Stefan sighs, but concedes easily. "Bonnie knocked Mason out and her and Damon took him back to my house. Damon's going to..."

"Torture and maim him?" Charlotte fills in, wincing slightly. "Right, okay. So, what else?"

Stefan grimaces, glancing down at his phone in his hand. "Bonnie ran into Mason earlier– literally. She got one of her visions, thought she saw you with Mason Lockwood, kissing him."

"What?!" Charlotte's face twisted in disgust and Stefan gave her an expectant look, one that quickly made her realize what had happened. "Katherine. Katherine was kissing Mason Lockwood. Oh, my god."

The vampire nods understandingly at her frantic tone. "Yeah, I know. I'm just waiting on updates from Damon or Bonnie at this point, letting me know if they got any information about the moonstone or Katherine."

Charlotte nods, pushing her hair out of her face with a sigh. She shakes her head, visibly shaking off any of her panic, and gives Stefan a determined look. "I'm helping with this, okay? Don't argue with me about it,"

Stefan looks like he wants to do exactly that, but seems to know better and instead just asks her a question. "Didn't you tell Elena and Jeremy to stay out of this?"

"Yeah, I did. And I'm the biggest hypocrite ever, that's what being the oldest is all about."

She turns, opening the door to the study again, gesturing for Stefan to step out first, her following suit. "Grab a box," She muttered, walking towards one of the tables with tablecloths folded haphazardly in it. "Pretend you care about this for a minute, just to get Elena off your back, alright?"

Stefan nods, following her lead, and the two of them walk into the foyer where Elena and Matt are standing, folding curtains and tablecloths and fancy napkins.

Elena looks up, glancing between them with a short nod. Before she can give them a verbal greeting, Tyler walks in, looking between the four of them. "Anyone seen Mason?"

Stefan glances around, shrugging. "He, uh, he took off. Said he wasn't sure when he'd be back."

Tyler shook his head, already moving away from them. "So weird."

Charlotte's fingers tighten around the corner of a tablecloth in her hands when Stefan's phone chimes with a text, and she and Elena both look at him pointedly.

Charlotte clears her throat, gesturing in the direction Tyler had gone in. "I'm gonna go ask him about Mason. Something's going on with him."

Matt nods in agreement and she takes the easy out, walking down the hall briskly before ducking off to the right instead of continuing forward.

She goes outside through one of the side doors, nearly jogging around the wrap-around porch back to the front of the house just as Stefan comes down the stairs, hurrying off towards the tree line with a flashlight in hand.

"What was it?" She calls out, catching his attention easily as she catches up to him.

"Bonnie texted about the moonstone. She said to look in the well at the edge of the old Lockwood property."

"That's weird," Charlotte frowns, stepping carefully over a thick tree branch that had fallen to the ground, the chatter of the volunteers quickly fading as they made their way into the woods.

It doesn't take long to reach the edge of the property on this side of it, and they approach the well with somewhat of a mutual hesitance between them.

"Bonnie really thinks it's in here?" Charlotte asks, watching Stefan rip the bulky, metal lock off the top and throw it away like it was nothing.

"I guess," Stefan sighs, removing the lid off the well next. He throws it away and then moves to grab the flashlight, shining the light uselessly down into the well.

Stefan hands Charlotte the flashlight and she takes it, watching him hoist himself up onto the edge of the well with a slight frown. She hands him back the light, pursing her lips. "Hey, just– be careful, or whatever. Elena is already going to kill me for doing this, so I really can't afford you getting hurt on top of it."

Stefan smirks slightly, grateful for her attempt at humor, but nods. "I'll only be down there for a minute,"

He jumps down into the deep well and Charlotte leans over the edge, watching as he splashes into the water down below. For a second, nothing happens, and she watches as he stands back upright, water sloshing around him. And then she hears the echo of a pained noise and her stomach twists nervously.

"Charlotte!"

"Stefan?" Charlotte yells back down into the well, her heart racing at the fear and panic in his voice. "Stefan, what's happening?! What's going on in there?"

Stefan's voice is hoarse and trembling when he yells out again. "Vervain! It's vervain!"

Charlotte's hands trembled with fear and she pushed off the side of the well, looking around helplessly. "Just– just hold on, Stefan! Just hold on!"

She briefly contemplated jumping down into the well with him, but a fall like that would kill her no matter what, and a quick glance down at the chain showed that was a dead-end, too.

In a blur, Caroline appeared at her side, eyes wide at the sound of her panic. "Charlie? What's wrong?"

"Stefan's down there!" Charlotte breathed out, looking back over into the deep pool of the well. "It's– it's full of vervain, Caroline, and the chain is rusted,"

Caroline stops her hasty movements to go into the well, defeat crushing her fortitude.

"Care, we have to get him out now," Charlotte clenched her jaw and Caroline nodded slowly, but reached for the chain despite her hesitance.

With Caroline's help, Charlotte wrapped the thick chain around her waist, standing still as the vampire draped it over the top of the well, bracing her grip around it with a determined furrow to her brow.

"I got you," Caroline nods firmly. "Okay?"

"Okay," Charlotte breathes out, hands shaking as she pulls her weight up with the chain.

"What's going on?" Bonnie's brisk sprint comes to a stop, her eyes wide as she looks at the two girls. "You took off in a blur."

"I heard Charlotte screaming," Caroline says simply. "Help her, now."

Bonnie offers Charlotte a hand and she carefully drops herself into the well, dangling with only the chain holding her up.

"You ready?"

"Yeah," Charlotte nods and Caroline begins to carefully lower her down, the chain clinking with every inch.

The darkness of the well makes Charlotte's skin crawl and she grimaces at the dank smell of the old water, mixed with the floral scent of vervain that she's grown used to.

Her eyes drop to Stefan face down in the water and fear pulls at her, tilting her head back up to look at Caroline. "Faster! Drop me faster!"

Caroline's pace quickens at her command, and Charlotte's feet drop into the water in seconds, soaking into her shoes and her clothes. She pulls Stefan's limp weight out of the water and a horrified gasp leaves her lips at the sight of his blistered and burnt face, and her shaking hands struggle to hoist his weight over to the chain, wrapping it around him.

"Charlotte, what's going on down there?"

"Pull him up! Fast, Caroline!"

Stefan's body dangles above her as Caroline pulls him up from the well, and she wipes a wet hand over her face, shivering at the chill in her bones that settles the longer she sits in the water.

She takes the flashlight Stefan had dropped, shining it around the water, her breaths audible as she huffed them out. "The stone," She whispers to herself, turning sharply in the water.

"Charlotte, I'm ready for you!"

"Hold on!" She calls back up to Caroline, hands fumbling along the rocks. "I've got to find the moonstone!"

She twists in the water, hand knocking into something sturdy and she stops, pulling at the rock in her hand that has string tied around it. "I think I found it!"

She pulls the string up a bit further, grunting as the box breaches the surface of the water. Clutching it tightly, she mutters something unintelligible to herself, a bit of relief washing through her.

The sharp hiss of a snake breaks through that feeling and she lets out a shrill scream at the feeling of its slick scales against her arm.

"Charlotte!"

"Charlie, what is it?"

Charlotte's voice breaks as she swipes the snakes away from her, falling backwards slightly, clutching onto the box like a lifeline before grabbing at the chain.

She gives herself three quick breaths in succession and wraps her weak grip around the chain, tugging it. "I got it, come on! Pull me up!"

She drops the flashlight into the water, kicking her feet out to get the strands of vervain stems off of them as she's hoisted back to the surface, Bonnie quickly grabbing her and helping her steady herself.

She shifts, placing the box with the moonstone beside her and turns to look at Stefan, that fear pulsing through her again. "Oh, no, no, no, not again," She whimpers to herself as she practically falls off of the side of the well, stumbling to the ground beside Stefan.

"Come on, come on," She grunts as she grabs a broken-off piece of stone from the well and drags it against her wrist, shoving the spill of her blood against his mouth. "Come on, Stefan, I got the stone. We have to go tell Elena,"

The vampire groans lightly, eyes fluttering open with a haze of confusion around them, and Charlotte lets out a sigh of relief, clutching her wrist as she pulls back from him, not allowing him to latch onto her like she had the last time she'd saved his life.

"Take him home," Charlotte breathes out, nodding at Bonnie and Caroline. "And the moonstone."

"What about you?" Bonnie says, looking at her still-bleeding wrist worriedly.

"I have to go tell Elena," Charlotte waves her off, standing on unsteady feet. "I'm fine. Get him out of here, and don't lose that stone."

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"And then what?" Elena's voice echoed over the sound of the shower and Charlotte turned, squeezing her eyes shut as she tilted her head back beneath the water, rinsing the soap out of her hair.

"Then Caroline pulled me back up, and got me out," Charlotte continued, pushing her soaked hair back off her forehead, running her hands down it to make sure the conditioner washed out completely. "And I had to give Stefan some of my blood to heal him, because he was nearly dead. And I swear, Elena, it wasn't a lot. It's nothing like last time, and I know you guys have been working on his bloodlust, so it's not as bad–"

"Charlie, it's fine," Elena's voice is soft and understanding when Charlotte turns the shower off, a brief silence falling between the twins. "Stefan's fine. He's still doing good, no hiding blood bags or eating anybody, I promise. You saved his life. If it hadn't been for you, he probably would've died in that well, and we wouldn't have the moonstone."

Charlotte hums, reaching a hand out from behind the curtain. "Can I have my towel?"

Elena moves to hand her the towel off the counter and Charlotte takes it, wrapping it around her body before she squeezes the water out of her hair and pulls the curtain back, stepping out of the tub.

"You promise you're not mad?"

"I promise," Elena smiles slightly. "But only because there was a life-saving event going on. If the stakes weren't so high..."

"Right, right, you'd be totally pissed still," Charlotte mirrors her smile, letting relief relax the tension in her shoulders. "Do you think dinner's done yet? I'm starving."

"I'll go check," Elena mockingly salutes her, leaving her to get dressed as she heads downstairs.

Alaric glances up at her as she approaches the dining table, clutching the hot pan of pasta with the potholders as he sets it down on the table.

"Where's Jeremy?"

"He went straight up to his room, said he wasn't hungry," Ric shifts, putting his hands on his hips.

Elena nods, glancing at her aunt in the kitchen holding the landline to her ear. "Who's she talking to?"

"I don't know," He shrugs, watching her concernedly. "Everything go okay today?"

The girl nods, lowering her voice as she points upstairs where Charlotte still lingers. "There were a few hiccups, but yeah. Charlie saved the day again, I think,"

"Sounds about right," Ric smiles, nodding with relief.

Jenna walks over to them, holding the phone out for her niece. "Elena, it's for you."

"Who is it?" Elena takes the phone with a confused frown, holding it up to her ear. "Hello?"

There's a momentary pause before an all-too familiar voice echoes through the speaker, sending an immediate chill down Elena's spine. "Hello, Elena."

Elena's eyes widen and she looks up at Ric, who's watching her with worried eyes. He silently questions the sudden fear on her face but she turns, putting distance between them as she lets out a shaky breath. "Katherine,"

"Did you enjoy your little rendezvous with Stefan this morning? I will always know, Elena,"

The smirk is audible in Katherine's voice even through the phone, and Elena wonders how someone with her voice can sound so cold and calculating.

"I will always be one step ahead of you. When are you gonna figure that out?"

Elena glances up at ceiling, wishing that Charlotte were down here.

"Do you know how easy it was to get inside of your house? To replace your Aunt Jenna's vervain perfume? To convince her to stop drinking her special tea?"

Elena turns as Alaric approaches her and she holds up a hand, holding him off as Katherine continues her threats. "No,"

"Jenna's been my little spy for days now, but unlike you, Jenna actually listens to me. So, when I suggest the world would be a much better place if she were to just–"

Elena turns to look at her aunt just as she's lifting the knife above her head and bringing it down into her stomach. She drops the phone, a yell breaking from her lips as she rushes over to her aunt. "Jenna, no!"

"Jenna!" Alaric stumbles over to her, panic washing over him as he hovers a hand over the knife protruding from her stomach.

Hurried footsteps echo from above and Charlotte comes running around the corner a moment later, her eyes widening at the sight of Jenna on the ground. "Oh, my god! What happened?"

Elena looks up at her sister, tears bubbling in her eyes. "Katherine– it was Katherine,"

Charlotte's stomach drops, twisting with a myriad of emotions, but she shoves them away, scrambling for the phone Elena had dropped a few feet away. "Call 911," She thrusts the phone at her sister, moving to press her hands down against Jenna's wound, ignoring the noise of pain she makes at the pressure. "Just call 911, Elena!"

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"She tried to kill Jenna," Charlotte repeated for what felt like the hundredth time, pacing back and forth in front of her bed where Cory sat patiently. "She can– she can get into my house,"

"Kinda hard to avoid that when she looks exactly like you," Cory said, unhelpfully, immediately holding his hands up in surrender when Charlotte glared at him. "My bad."

"This can't keep happening, Cory," Charlotte shook her head, frustration heavy in her voice as she stopped pacing, standing before him. "Elena is miserable, Stefan's miserable, Damon's on edge constantly– I have to worry about my evil doppelgänger going around killing people. This is insane. I– I have to do something about it."

Cory frowned, leaning forward on his elbows. "Yeah, but what are you going to do about it? We don't know what Katherine wants, and we can't stop her if we don't know what she wants."

"Yeah, I know," Charlotte sighed heavily, putting her hands on her hips. "Which is why I need your help."

Wariness flooded his face. "With what, exactly?"

"I'm going to have to lie," She says vaguely, dread pooling in her dark eyes. "A lot."

"Charlotte, what is going on in that big, beautiful brain of yours?" Cory stands up, placing his hands on her shoulders with a pleading look. "I need details."

"Katherine won last night, right? She almost killed Jenna, and that was payback for Elena and Stefan still being together. But she hasn't said anything about me, Cory. She hasn't done anything to me yet," Charlotte huffed, an incredulous determination in her voice. "No one's going to be looking at me like they are Elena. So we need to take advantage of this blindspot while we still have it."

Cory purses his lips, hands tightening on her shoulders for a moment. "What do you want to do, Charlotte?"

"I want to kill Katherine."

Cory's eyes widen slightly, but he keeps his reaction contained. "And when, exactly, do you want to do this?"

She shrugs, gesturing to the dress she had hanging on her closet door for the masquerade ball. "Why not tonight?"

"You're insane," He lets out a long, even breath. "But I love it."

Charlotte grins.

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author's note; we all know who gets introduced after the masquerade ball... ;)

edited and published; 6.5.24.

- liz