❝i need you to love me more.❞
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"YOUR SISTER SPENDS A LOT OF TIME WITH THE SALVATORES."

Charlotte looks up from her book, frowning as John steps into her bedroom. "She's dating one of them."

She liked to think that she gave everyone the benefit of the doubt, even if they didn't necessarily deserve it. It took a lot of pushing for Charlotte to actually be done with someone, and truly not want them in her life anymore. Even then, she still wanted the best for them, in whatever they decided to do with themselves outside of her life. But John was not one of those people she gave a hundred second chances to.

Charlotte had the patience of a saint, but she truly had no tolerance for people who had no care in their hearts for others. Not without some ulterior motive, or selfishness behind the decisions they make. John fell into both of those categories, and even when her parents were alive and he came around– as sparingly as that was– she just couldn't stand to be in the same room as him. He held himself like he had the answers to the universe, and she hated it. He had no humility, and she didn't like people that couldn't admit they were wrong.

"Yeah, but don't you worry about her? Being around them?"

He had a way of talking around the actual point he was trying to make, to try and back someone else in a corner, and Charlotte never fell for it. She didn't like unspoken words, not when there was something serious at hand. "Why would I worry about her being with her boyfriend?"

"Come on, Charlotte," John tilts his head, narrowing his eyes at her. "You know what I'm worried about."

She drops her feet to the ground, closing her book firmly and pushing it away as she turns to face him head on. She watches him eye a picture of Miranda and Grayson on her dresser before looking back at her expectantly.

"I'm not sure what you want me to say, John," She shakes her head, brows furrowing deeper and deeper the longer he continues to stand before her.

He picks up the picture of her parents, flipping it towards her. "They wouldn't approve of either of your choices in friends. Or boyfriends."

Charlotte's shoulders tense and she looks at him in disbelief. "In case you haven't heard, they aren't here anymore. You don't speak for them, John. I know they weren't who I thought they were, but you can't know for certain if they would approve or disapprove, and I don't appreciate you trying to tell me what my parents would think of me."

John looks at her in slight surprise, like he hadn't expected her to get so defensive towards him, whether it be over her parents or the Salvatores.

"It's dangerous for you two to be around them. They are dangerous."

Charlotte stands, crossing the short distance to him and yanking the picture of her parents from his hand and slapping it down on the dresser. "You can't just show up whenever you want and act like you have any right to tell Elena and I what to do. It's insulting to us, to Jeremy, and to Jenna. We are the only family we have left. You have never been around long enough to be a part of that. And if you think for one second that I'm not aware of every risk that Elena comes in contact with, you're more oblivious than I thought."

Charlotte clenches her jaw, frustration bubbling over as she reaches over by her bed for her sneakers and her phone. "I keep my family safe from anything that might hurt them, and that includes you, John. You can try and pit us against our friends, against the people we love and care for, but it won't work."

She pulls her shoes on and stuffs her phone into the pocket of her jeans, shaking her head as she pushes past him. "I don't even know why you're still here. You can see yourself out."

She storms out of her room without a glance back in his direction and makes her way downstairs, grabbing her keys and heading for the front door. She slams it shut behind her, and the quiet, bitter part of her that hardly ever comes to the surface, hopes that he flinched at the sound.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"Are you ever going to tell me why you're avoiding Damon?"

Charlotte shifts uncomfortably, eyes drifting from the movie to Cory on the bed beside her. "What are you talking about?"

He raises a brow at her innocent act. "You go from spending nearly every day with him, to not seeing him for almost a whole week. How does that happen?"

Charlotte heaves a sigh, laying her hand between her cheek and the pillow as she rolls to face him. "I told him about Stefan feeding on me."

Realization dawns on Cory's face. "Oh."

"Yeah," She huffs. "So, I'm not avoiding him, he's avoiding me. And I'm... giving him the space he deserves."

"Charlie," Cory says her name with something close to pity, and she looks away from him. "I'm sure he's not mad at you. You saved his brother's life, and your own. It's not your fault that Stefan is a ripper."

She rolls back onto her back, looking up at the glow in the dark stars on his ceiling that they'd put up years ago, in the shape of their zodiac constellations. They'd long since stopped glowing, but Cory never took them down, so the symbols remained. "I don't think he's mad at me, really. I know he's probably just hurt. But I don't know how to make it better. I don't know if he'll let me make it better."

"It's not your job to make things better, Charlotte," Cory frowns, movie long forgotten. "Some things just take time."

"Yeah, but– oh, hold on, Elena's calling me,"

"Boring," Cory huffs, rolling his eyes as Charlotte slaps his arm scoldingly. "Do not think you can use this to change the subject."

Charlotte pointedly answers the phone, giving him a short glare. "What's up, Lena?"

"Charlie, hey, are you busy? I'm at Stefan's and I need dinner but I don't want to leave him here alone."

"Is Damon not there?"

"He's with Alaric, if you can believe it. Said he wouldn't be back until later. It's alright if you can't, I'll see if anything delivers out here,"

"No, no," Charlotte shakes her head. "It's fine. Cory and I can stop by the Grill and get something, just text me what you want."

Elena lets out a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Charlie. I'll see you guys soon."

The phone call ends, and Charlotte happily takes the new task as a change of subject. "We should go, that way we can leave before Damon gets back. I don't think either of us are ready to deal with that just yet."

"You're right, I should talk to Damon first."

"No," Charlotte shakes her head, a humorless laugh leaving her lips. "Absolutely not. Not allowed."

"I thought you wanted us to get along,"

"Yeah, that was when I was getting along with Damon. But now he probably hates me because I'm basically Katherine!"

Cory narrows his eyes at her, surprise flooding his gaze at her words. "Charlie..."

She deflates, dropping her head into her hands. "I really messed up, Cory. And I don't know how I'm going to fix it." She turns to look at him through glassy eyes. "Can we just go? I promise we can talk about it later."

Reluctantly, he nods. "Yeah. Yeah, let's just go."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Charlotte looks up as the classroom door swings open, and she slumps further in her seat when she briefly meets Damon's eyes for the first time in a week. Bringing her hands up to press at her temples, she digs her nails into her hair, lightly pulling at the root as her stomach swirls with anxiety.

"Damon, thanks for coming,"

"Sorry I'm late, my dog ate my, uh– nevermind." He cuts himself off with a smirk at Alaric's entirely unamused look. "What's all the furrowed brows?"

"I saw Isobel last night."

Damon's head quickly turns in Alaric's direction, his eyes widening. "Isobel's here? In town?"

He sets off, pacing past Stefan around the classroom, eyes darting between Alaric, Elena, and Charlotte rapidly. "Did you ask about Uncle John? Are they working together?"

Alaric shakes his head, arms crossed over his chest. "No,"

"No, they're not?"

"No, I didn't ask," Alaric corrects him.

"What about the invention?"

"Didn't ask."

"Does she know about the tomb of vampires?"

Alaric sighs shortly as Damon comes to stand in front of him again. "I don't know."

Damon lurches forward slightly, face furrowed in a frown. "Did words completely escape you?"

"No, I was a little too distracted by my dead vampire wife to ask any questions!" Alaric snaps, glaring right back at the vampire.

Damon clenches his jaw. "What does she want?"

"She wants to see me and Charlotte," Elena says, voice grim as Damon's eyes snap towards Charlotte, who refuses to meet his gaze.

"Alaric is supposed to arrange a meeting," Stefan informs him. "We don't know why or what she wants."

Damon keeps a firm look on Charlotte. "You don't have to see her if you don't want to,"

Brief silence follows his words, and it finally makes Charlotte look up at him, and he sees the glassy gleam to her eyes as she drops her hands out of her hair onto the desk. "I don't really have a choice, Damon."

"She's threatening to go on a killing spree," Alaric fills in, making Damon's brows raise.

"Oh," He pauses, nodding shortly. "I take it that's... not okay with you guys?"

"I wanna do it," Elena says quickly, garnering everyone's attention. "I wanna meet her. If I don't, I know I'll regret it."

Damon's eyes drift from Elena to Charlotte, and she wraps her arms around herself like they can shield her from the world.

"I can't let her go on a killing spree because I don't want to meet her." Charlotte grumbles, her tone less petulant and more hesitant. She looks up at Damon from beneath thick lashes, big brown eyes looking at him hopelessly. "I only have to do it once, right?"

It's too much to ask of him, and they both know it. But she does it anyway, and he lets her. He has this thing in him, buried deep where it can never see the daylight, can never be touched by Charlotte's burning warmth. He's kept it stashed away, still battered and bruised from another woman's hands, and fangs, and cold heart, because the last time he let it out, his brother forced him to turn into a vampire even though nobody wanted him to, including himself.

This thing inside of him hasn't healed since 1864, and he's done a good job at keeping it stowed away, along with every other weakness he's got and won't show, and it was fine, everything was fine, until Charlotte Gilbert walked into his house and looked at him, and made him feel alive for the first time in over a century.

And he tries his best to keep it in the dark, but then Charlotte goes and asks the world of him, and he can't not give it to her. He has to promise her these things, even if they both know they're empty and impossible.

So, he nods in response to her. Pushes away his old fears and insecurities about everything that happened with her and Stefan, and says, "Only once." If only to make her look away from him, so he can kick that hopeless, lovesick thing back into the depths of his person until the next time she looks at him.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Charlotte's leg bounces rapidly beneath the table, shaking it lightly as she stares at the polished wood grain so hard it starts to blur in her vision.

She feels Elena's hand rest softly on her arm, and when she snaps her head up, a dark-haired woman is sitting down before them with a small smirk on her face.

A chill washes down her spine and she sits back in her chair, spine stiffly straight as she stares this woman– Isobel– her biological mother– down. When she looks at Isobel, she sees nothing. There's no instinct in her gut, no familiarity, nothing.

It's a relief. She'd been scared– terrified, really, to meet Isobel one day and have any desire to form a relationship with her. She had a mom already, and there was no one who could replace her. Not even her own flesh and blood.

"Hello, Elena," Isobel says, smirk growing. "Charlotte."

Her eyes drift between the twins, and she blinks a few times. "You look just like her. It's eerie."

Elena's brows furrow. "You've met Katherine?"

"She found me after I turned. Genetic curiosity, I suppose. I told her about you two, how there was a possibility one of you could be the doppelgänger. She'd be fascinated by the both of you."

Elena swallows nervously, looking down at the lapis lazuli necklace around Isobel's neck. "Is that how you can walk in the daylight?"

Isobel holds the stone proudly. "Katherine helped me obtain it."

Charlotte's frown twists, and deepens on her face as she sits there in silence.

"Who's our father?"

"Not important," Isobel is quick to reply. "He was a teenage waste of space."

"A name would be nice,"

"It would, wouldn't it?" Isobel tilts her head, taunting lilt to her voice. "You ask a lot of questions."

Elena bites her tongue, hurt panging in her chest as she looks away from the woman. "Why did you compel that man to kill himself right after he told me to stop looking for you?"

"Traumatic impact. Wish it would have been more effective."

"Human life means that little to you?"

Isobel continues unwavering in the face of morals. "It means nothing to me. It's just part of being what I am."

Charlotte scoffs under her breath, but Isobel hears it clearly and spares her an amused look. Charlotte stays stoically silent.

"No," Elena shakes her head. "No, it's not. I know other vampires. That's not true."

The smirk grows on Isobel's face again. "Your new boyfriend over there by the pool table? Stefan Salvatore."

Charlotte instinctively looks over at him, realizing she'd forgotten he was even in here. Damon had tried to come in, too, but Alaric stopped him. He didn't want to poke the bear more than Elena already had with her prodding into Isobel's existence in the first place.

"Why Stefan? Why didn't you go for Damon?"

Charlotte's eyes snap to Isobel, and her stare hardens.

"Or do you enjoy them both? Like Katherine did."

Elena shakes off the disturbing reminder of Katherine's actions. "Why did you want to meet us? It can't be to just catch up."

"Because I'm curious about you," Isobel tilts her head. "But the real reason is I want what your uncle wants. Jonathan Gilbert's invention."

"How do you know Uncle John?"

"I used to spend a lot of time here when I was younger. John had a crush on me for years. He was the first one that told me about vampires."

Elena shakes her head slightly. "So, what made you want to be one?"

"It's a very long list of reasons, Elena, all of which I'm sure you've thought about."

Elena shakes her head again.

Isobel gives her a look that's a mixture of slight shock and amusement. "That was your first lie. It's inevitable. You're gonna get old, Stefan won't. Forever doesn't last very long when you're human."

Elena inhales sharply, moving to stand. "I'm sorry, but I don't have what you're looking for."

Lunging, Isobel grabs her forearm in a tight grip, keeping her from leaving. "Sit down, and tell your boyfriend to walk away."

Charlotte moves on instinct, wrapping her hand around Isobel's wrist as tight as she can. "Let go of her. Now."

Isobel turns her head to look at Charlotte, a smirk pulling at her lips, breaking through the quick anger that had appeared there. "She speaks."

"Let her go, Isobel. Or I expose you to the Council and get you killed."

Elena sits back down slowly, looking at the tension between Isobel and Charlotte. She looks up, past Isobel's head, and nods dismissively to Stefan, who's still looking between the three of them protectively.

He hesitates to leave, and Charlotte speaks again without taking her eyes off of Isobel. "Go, Stefan. It's fine."

Isobel waits, seemingly for Stefan's departure, and then she looks at Elena, wrist still in Charlotte's grip, while Elena's remains in hers. "I want the invention."

"I don't have it," Elena says, voice somewhat shaky.

"I know that. But Damon does." Her eyes gleam knowingly. "And you're gonna get it for me."

Elena shakes her head. "He's not gonna give it to me,"

Isobel lets go of Elena's wrist, and Charlotte quickly drops hers in return. "Then the blood will be on your hands."

Looking between the twins, she gives a minute shrug and gets up, grabbing her jacket and her purse as she walks off. "It was nice meeting you,"

Charlotte barely waits for her to be out of sight before she's up and pushing away from the table, ignoring Elena's calls for her to come back. She pushes past Stefan, bumping into him with a muttered apology that her voice breaks on halfway through.

She hurries out of the Grill, letting out a sharp exhale when she walks outside. Digging into her pockets, she pulls out her car key and hurries over to the parking lot, holding her breath as she swallows sobs as she drives away as fast as she safely can.

Her hands clench around her steering wheel until her knuckles go white, and she thinks she's broken skin on her palms.

The slight sting makes her breath steadily again, and when she pulls into the driveway she barely puts the car in park before she's out of it and hurrying up the porch steps and through the front door. Luckily, she manages to avoid any prying eyes, whether it be Jenna or John, and she hurries to her room, pulling her shoes off haphazardly.

She throws them carelessly towards her closet doors and unbuttons her pants, ripping her shirt off in the same motion as she stalks towards the bathroom with panicked steps.

She locks the door behind her and turns the bath faucet on and plugs the drain, feeling the cold splash on her fingers as she finishes undressing the rest of the way before stepping into the cold tub and sinking down into the familiar sensation.

It feels like a hug in the coldest way, and Charlotte closes her eyes as the water fills the tub slowly, sifting over her face until she's fully submerged.

Time passes, and occasionally Charlotte will shift and breathe, but as her heart finally slows, she comes up for air less and less. When the chills wracking her body begin to get unbearable, she unplugs the drain and grabs her towel, stepping out carefully onto the rug in front of the shower.

She dries herself off quickly, scrunching water out of her hair until it's no longer dripping, and the thought of a future comb-through of her curls isn't a complete nightmare. She dresses in pajamas that she thinks are hers, but could be Elena's, and when she unlocks the bathroom door and steps into her room, there's a figure sitting on her bed against the headboard looking settled like he's been there for a minute.

Charlotte stops short at the sight of Damon, who immediately looks up from his lap to meet her gaze.

Whatever he sees on her face seems to soften him, and Charlotte drops her wet towel on the floor near her laundry hamper carelessly as she takes hesitant steps over to the side of the bed.

Without prompt, Damon opens his arms and Charlotte practically falls into him. Damon shifts her weight, lifting her off her feet as she slants herself across his lap and plasters herself against his chest, her face buried into his shoulder as she shakes with silent sobs.

Distant pains ache in Damon's chest, and he holds Charlotte tight against him, resting his cheek against the top of her head. "I know," His voice is a soft murmur, a blanket over her pain that he knows doesn't touch the surface of it at all. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Charlotte turns around to go grab another string of tinsel for the float and stops short, a gasp falling from her lips as she nearly runs into someone. Eyes widening, she looks around warily. "Isobel. What are you doing here?"

The vampire smirks. "I'm your mother, Charlotte. I want to be more involved in your life."

Charlotte rears back, lips curling in disgust. "You are not my mother. I don't want you in my life."

"I understand that," Isobel concedes easily, but makes no moves to leave despite the clear dismissal. "You already have a lot of people that you care about, but I've been studying. Let's see if I got this right."

Isobel turns, gaze falling across the parking lot as two familiar figures walk side by side. "There's the witchy friend Bonnie, and the vampire-hunting legacy Cory." She turns to give Charlotte a wry smile, like it's funny. "Gonna stay away from those two."

Again, Isobel morphs her face into a mockery of human emotion– pity, this time. Looking over Charlotte's shoulder, who turns just as quickly to find the target of her ridicule now. "Oh. Sad little brother Jeremy. And there's Caroline. Obnoxious Caroline. I got all of my info from her, by the way. She had no idea who I was, and she wouldn't stop yapping."

Isobel rolls her eyes, seeming put off by Caroline's forthcoming information.

"Oh, and there's Tyler. Friend, ex-friend. Ex-boyfriend. Yappy told me it didn't end well between you two, though. Shame." Isobel shakes her head, and the nausea in Charlotte's stomach swirls. "But then there's Matt. Your friend, Elena's ex. Yappy's future ex. Lots of connections there."

"Matt's not involved in this," Charlotte speaks through gritted teeth.

"He's involved with you, isn't he? And Elena?"

Charlotte shakes her head, pushing her hair out of her face from where the wind had blown it about. "You shouldn't be here. You need to leave, now."

"No." Isobel says plainly, with no hesitation. "I have some friends here, too. Look."

She points a finger to Charlotte's left, back in the direction of the floats. "See that man over there, standing next to Matt by the float? His name's Frank, he's very handsome, and he's also quite handy. He noticed that the axle was kind of rusted, which is very dangerous. So all you have to do is apply a little bit of pressure, and–"

Charlotte's breath catches as she watches Frank jump up onto the trailer, and bring it crashing down onto Matt's arm. "No!"

She lunges to run for the commotion, but Isobel stops her, grabbing her arm tight enough to bruise. She struggles against her hold, watches as Stefan hurries through the crowd to finish lifting the trailer the rest of the way so Matt can pull himself out from underneath it.

She snaps her head towards Isobel, glaring through the tears in her eyes. "Why are you doing this?"

"I'm showing you how easy it is to hurt the people you care about,"

"And you're doing this just because of Jonathan Gilbert's invention?" Charlotte asks breathlessly, disbelief lacing her voice.

"Hand it over, and the fun will stop."

"Elena told you yesterday, Damon wasn't going to give it to us."

"And I think that you underestimate how much Damon cares about you,"

A pang of something hits somewhere deep inside Charlotte and she ignores it, pushing it away to focus on the incredulity at Isobel's actions. "He'll kill you before he gives it up."

"Is that before or after I kill your brother Jeremy?"

Charlotte turns quickly, eyes falling to the now empty space where Jeremy had been standing just moments ago, and her stomach bottoms out, heart feeling like it's dropped to the ground at her feet. "Jeremy? Jeremy!"

With a glance over her shoulder, she confirms the thought that Isobel has disappeared, too, her minions gone with Jeremy in tow.

Stefan hurries over to her, eyes wide as he clutches her arms, stopping her in her panicked spinning. "Charlotte– Charlotte, what just happened?"

She shakes her head, looking up at him. "I– I don't– Isobel. She wants the device. Or she's going to kill Jeremy."

Stefan momentarily looks as rattled as she feels, but he shakes it off, focusing on her. "Okay. Okay, let's go. Inside, now."

He shifts his hold on her, pulling her towards the school through the crowd, and Charlotte lets him lead, if only because she thinks her knees might give out if she tries to walk on her own.

Briefly, she stops, reaching out to tug on Cory's shirt and get him to face her with an immediately worried look on his face. Charlotte looks in between him and Bonnie and Elena where they stand huddled together, and she must express something grave because they all begin to follow her and Stefan back inside the school without question.

They all hurry to Alaric's classroom, where the teacher is already occupying his desk, looking shocked at the onslaught of students that pile in all at once, with varying levels of grief on their faces.

"What happened?"

Charlotte moves out of Stefan's hold and rakes her hands through her hair, tugging on the roots as she paces a short distance in front of Alaric's desk. "Isobel showed up and– and she made the trailer fall on Matt's arm, and she took–" She looks to Elena, pores bleeding guilt. "She took Jeremy."

Elena gasps, hand coming up to cover her mouth as the severity of the situation settles over them.

"She took Jeremy, and she said she wants the device or she'll kill him."

Cory raises his hand, looking confused. "What device, exactly?"

Elena turns to look at him. "A device that Jonathan Gilbert made in 1864. He thought he created a weapon against vampires, but Emily Bennett put a spell on it so it would actually work."

"Where's the device?" Bonnie asks from her seat at a desk, brows furrowed as she looks between them all.

"Damon has it," Stefan answers, hands on his hips as Elena begins to mirror Charlotte's anxious pacing. "He's going to be difficult to reason with."

"We'll– we'll go to him. I'll talk to him– Charlie will talk to him."

Stefan shakes his head minutely. "He's not just gonna hand it over, especially if it's harmful to vampires,"

A brief look of contemplation crosses Elena's face, and she tilts her head. "What if it's not?"

Her eyes fall pointedly to Bonnie, who sits up straighter at the sudden attention on her. "What– me?"

"Yes," Elena nods, looking more sure of herself. "Yeah, you can– you can just de-spell it, can't you? It was your ancestor who put the spell on it in the first place."

Bonnie shrugs hesitantly, looking between Elena and Charlotte's hopeful looks. "I mean... yeah– yeah, yes. I can do it."

Charlotte steps forward, brows furrowing on her face. "Promise? You promise you can do it, and it won't, like– hurt you, or anyone else?"

Bonnie nods slowly. "Yeah. Yeah, I promise."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"Absolutely not."

"Just hear me out," Elena steps forward, the group of them entirely unsurprised by Damon's resolute refusal.

"I'm not gonna give the device to Isobel, so she can give it to John, who's gonna turn around and kill me. I like being a living dead person."

Elena cuts in, stubbornly shaking her head. "It will be useless. Bonnie can take its power away."

Damon barely blinks, doesn't even consider the possibility. "I don't trust her!"

"I can remove the original spell," Bonnie says quickly, backing up Elena's claims to her magic.

Elena holds her hands up, giving Damon an imploring look. "John and Isobel will never know."

"No," Damon shakes his head, turning away. "No, I'll get Jeremy my own way."

"Really?" Stefan asks, obvious disbelief in his voice. "How're you gonna do that? Hm? Because Isobel is a vampire, and Jeremy can be dead the second you walk in the door."

Damon hears Stefan's words, but his eyes are on Bonnie, who, despite her integral place in the plan, looks uninterested in it entirely. "Are you even up for this? I mean, no offense– you're no Emily Bennett. Emily knew what she was doing."

"I've been practicing,"

"It's not piano lessons, honey,"

Bonnie stands up from her perch, crossing the short distance to stand before Damon, thoroughly provoked. "What's your favorite book?"

Damon blinks rapidly, rolling his eyes. "What?"

Bonnie shrugs, reiterating herself. "Name a book, any book."

"Name a book," Damon echoes, looking around the study with another dramatic roll of his eyes. "How about Call of the Wild– Jack London?"

Bonnie nods confidently and turns, walking towards one of the shelves nearby. They all watch as she focuses in on a shelf, and a book comes flying out from the stacks, straight towards Damon, who catches it in his hand with ease.

He checks the old, cracked spine and quirks a brow, sparing a look in Stefan, Elena, and Charlotte's direction. "Jack London."

Shrugging it off easily, Damon chucks the book away and gives Bonnie a smirk that's empty of any real humor. "Great parlor trick."

"We have to do this, Damon," Charlotte finally speaks up, dropping her arms from where they were crossed tight against her chest. "We have to do this, or Jeremy will die, and she won't stop there."

She steps past Elena, standing before Damon as she looks up at him through dark eyes full of pain that's intertwined in her DNA. "Give me the device."

Damon tears his eyes away from her pinning gaze, looking past her at Bonnie. "I don't trust you. I tried to kill you."

Bonnie hums in assent. "You're right, you can't trust me."

"But you can trust me," Charlotte cuts in quickly, looking at him pleadingly. "And you can trust that Bonnie trusts me, and she promised me she'd do this. So just trust that I wouldn't do something to hurt you."

Damon's gaze momentarily softens, and he heaves a heavy sigh as he forcibly looks away from her. Plastering his annoyed mask back on, he rolls his eyes and digs the device out of his pocket and drops it into Charlotte's waiting palm.

His fingers curl around her hand slightly, and she brushes the tips of hers along the inside of his wrist before they both pull away, Charlotte's hand clenching the device and Damon flexing his as he pushes past his brother with a short glare directed at Stefan's knowing look.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"I don't want you doing this alone, Charlie. She's dangerous."

"That's why Stefan and Damon are coming with me," Charlotte gives her sister a firm look, room allowing no arguments, despite Elena's stubbornness. "I want you to go home. You'll be safe there, where Isobel can't get you if something goes wrong."

Elena shakes her head, scoffing. "What about you? You won't be safe, you're– you're gonna be standing out in the open, in the dark! That's so–"

"Elena, please," Charlotte grabs her hands, giving her a pleading look. "Just listen to me. Nothing is going to happen. We've got it covered. Just go home."

Elena heaves a sigh, looking irritated but somewhat settled. She nods, conceding to Charlotte, and the older twin feels at least one twist of anxiety settle in her stomach at the agreement. "Thank you. I'll see you later, okay? Everything's gonna be fine. Text when you get home, okay?"

Elena nods again and turns, walking towards her car as Stefan and Damon keep some distance, still listening in with a close ear.

Charlotte sets a brisk pace towards the town square, looking both ways before she crosses the street despite it being dark outside, and the town virtually dead.

She looks around, seeing if she can spot Stefan and Damon through the shadows, but she can't. Despite the unease, she reminds herself that they can hear further than she can imagine, and can be at her side in a second in case something does go wrong.

It barely comforts her, but she just tries to remind herself that there's trust there. She has to rely on the fact that they trust her, and she trusts them, and it's not something light between any of them.

So alert but lost in her thoughts, Charlotte barely startles when Isobel abruptly arrives.

"Where's the device?"

"Where's my brother?"

"This isn't a negotiation," Isobel shoots her down quickly. "Where's the invention?"

Charlotte clenches her jaw, lifting her chin up as she stands stiff before the woman. "Where is my brother, Isobel?"

Isobel blinks, smirking amusedly at her bravado. "Do you really think that I came alone?"

Charlotte tenses briefly as she hears footsteps echo behind her, and she turns to see the vampire, Frank, that had hurt Matt earlier, and the woman that had taken Jeremy. Jaw clenching, she turns back to Isobel. "Do you really think that I came alone?"

Her eyes fall past Isobel, who turns to follow the direction of her gaze as Stefan and Damon approach her.

Turning back to face Charlotte with a roll of her eyes, Isobel speaks. "For god's sake, call home,"

"What?"

"Call home and ask to speak to your brother Jeremy,"

Charlotte scrambles to get her phone out of her pocket quickly, eyes falling to Stefan and Damon as the phone rings in her ear. Relief floods through her when the line picks up, and Jeremy greets her simply.

"Hello?"

"Jeremy," Charlotte rests a hand on her chest, feeling her heart race beneath it. "Are you okay?"

There's a slight pause on the line before Jeremy speaks again. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Uncle John, uh, hit his head. It was an accident."

Jenna's voice echoes faintly in the background. "And we're all laughing,"

"Yeah," Jeremy chuckles slightly. "But, um, I'm okay."

Charlotte nods, pushing her hair out of her face. "Elena and I will be home soon, alright?"

"Alright, talk to you later,"

Charlotte ends the call and tucks her phone back in her pocket, meeting Isobel's prodding gaze again. "Were you ever even going to hurt him?"

"No, I was gonna kill him," She says simply, shaking her head. "Don't look for any redeeming qualities in me. I don't have any."

The girl scoffs lightly. "That is the one thing I would believe coming from you." She stops, giving Isobel a slightly confused look. "You took a risk with Damon, asking me to get the device from him. How did you know he was going to give it to me?"

"Because he's in love with you,"

Charlotte freezes, heart skipping a beat as Isobel smoothly moves past the comment, like it didn't just shake Charlotte to her bones.

The vampire holds her hand out urgingly, and Charlotte's lip curls in a mean snarl that looks out of place on her face as she rips the device out of her pocket and slams it into Isobel's palm.

"Thank you, Isobel."

"For what?"

"For being such a monumental disappointment," She scoffs. "Because now I'm going to go home to my real family and my little sister, and pick up the pieces of her that have been broken again because she was naive enough to think that you would be anything like our mother."

"Goodbye, Charlotte," Isobel smirks, unaffected by her cruel words. "As long as you and Elena have a Salvatore on your arm, you're doomed. Katherine was smart. She got out. But we all know that you're not Katherine."

Isobel walks off without another word, and Charlotte watches her go, biting her tongue to the point she thinks she tastes copper.

She turns back to face Stefan and Damon, and tucks her hair behind her ears as Stefan approaches her carefully.

"Elena texted," Stefan says quietly. "She said she's home safe, and Jeremy's in one piece."

Charlotte nods, tucking her hands into the pocket of her jacket. "Thank you, Stefan. Don't– don't tell her what Isobel said, okay? She's already upset enough."

"Of course," He nods, giving her a sympathetic smile. "You, uh, you ready to go?"

Charlotte looks up, not really remembering when she'd looked down at the ground– somewhere between biting her tongue and trying to ignore the burn of tears in her eyes. She looks up, past Stefan to where Damon had been standing, but in his place is nothing.

Brows furrowing, Charlotte looks around, head turning in every direction. "Where did Damon go?"

Stefan briefly mirrors her scan for his brother, but seems unsurprised by his disappearance. "I, uh– he must've taken off on his own. No problem, right? I should– I should get you home before Elena starts to worry."

Charlotte swallows around the lump of solid concrete in her throat and nods, following after him as he starts to walk back towards the car.

She tries to ignore the pit in her stomach that deepens at Damon's absence.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

author's note; i missed charlotte and damon sm

edited and published; 7.16.23. 

- liz