ⵌ「 𝓓𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗛 𝓦𝗜𝗦𝗛 𝓛𝗢𝗩𝗘 」. 𖦹˙-⋆
❪ 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗦 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗘 ❫ ࿐ ࿔*:･
╭──╯season one ─── episode eleven╰──╮
𝚋𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚍𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚜˚ ༘ 🏹𖦹⋆｡˚

❝ oh, bonnie. i 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 for 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆. ❞

❝𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 doing?❞ Stefan's voice comes from behind the teenager as she stands out of sight of the window that the sun peaked into the house, "Lottie?"

Charlotte sighs as she moves away from the window, sitting in a chair that was further away from the sun that could quit literally set her on fire, "I was just....it's been way to long since I've been outside in the daylight. I miss it. And staying inside for over a hundred years drains a person, Uncle Stefan."

"Charlotte, listen to me." Stefan moved to crouch down in front of his dead best friends daughter, someone who he vowed to protect for the rest of his time on earth, "I promise you, I will find a way to get you a daylight ring so that you are able to go out into the sun."

"Don't make promises that you can't keep." Charlotte sends him a sad smile, "I'm doomed to be stuck in this house for the rest of eternity. I've come to terms with it."

"I'm keeping my promise." He stands up to kiss the top of her head, "I have something that I need to do, but I'll be back, okay?"

Charlotte pauses as she tilts her head to the side, "Since I'm stuck staying here, can I make some changes to the room I'm staying in?"

He chuckles as he reaches the front door, "Go for it, kid."

▭

❝𝐁𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐄.❞ 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐅𝐀𝐍 𝐌𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐒 after Bonnie in the schoolyard.

"Stefan."

"Hi."

"Hey."

"I, uh, I haven't seen you lately." Stefan tells the witch, "How are you doing...with everything?"

"I - I'm fine. All's fine."

"Good."

"Are you back in school?" Bonnie questioned him, the conversation growing awkward between the two of them.

"No, actually, I came here to find you." He says to her, "I was hoping you could help me with something. A spell."

"Stefan, look, I know Elena's okay with all of this, and I appreciate what you did to help me, but I'm not really ready to dive into it with you just yet."

"I understand that, but I need your help. It's Elena. She's with Damon." Stefan says, lowering her voice for a bit.

▭

❝𝐈 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐀'𝐒 necklace.❞ Stefan and Bonnie sit at one of the picnic tables in the school's courtyard. "I was just hoping you can use this to make some sort of a connection. I just need to know that she's okay."

"How do you know I can do this?" Bonnie questioned the vampire sitting next to her.

"Because I've known a few witches over the years. I've seen what they can do."

"I'm still new at it."

"It's okay." Stefan puts the necklaces in the palm of Bonnie's hand, "Give it a shot."

"Okay. Alright." Bonnie takes the necklace between her two hands, closing her eyes as she tries to concentration on finding where Elena and Damon could be, "There's nothing. Nothing's happening. Usually there's an image or...tell me if anyone's looking."

"Okay."

Bonnie grabs a leaf off the ground and concentrates on it, but nothing happens, "Ugh."

"What is it?"

"Something's wrong."

"With Elena?" Stefan stares at her with a concerned look on her face.

"With me. There's something wrong with me." Bonnie tells him, "I have to go. I'm sorry, Stefan. I can't help you."

▭

𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐅𝐀𝐍 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐒 𝐎𝐍 the front porch of Sheila's home after knocking on the door, hoping that Bonnie would be the one to answer but all hope goes out the door when her grandmother opens instead, "Hi."

"Can I help you?" Sheila asked the vampire, keeping her hand on the front door.

"I'm Stefan. I'm a friend of Bonnie's." Stefan tells her before reaching out to shake hands with the witch, knowing that she would be able to feel exactly what she was, "Her dad told me that she might be here."

"She was. Not anymore."

"Do you know where she went?" He asked.

"No. But you do."

"I'm sorry?"

"I told her to face down her fears and I'm sensing now that you know exactly why she was scared." Sheila says to him, "You know what I am. And yet you offered me your hand which means you wanted me to see that I can trust you."

"Can you?"

"I trust you'll keep her safe. Better be on your way, then. I'm not gonna invite you in." Sheila tells him with a pointed look on her face, "Sure you understand why."

▭

❝𝐒𝐎, 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓'𝐒 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐎𝐓𝐓𝐄'𝐒 story?❞ Elena sits at the bar with Damon, burgers in front of them.

"What do you mean?"

"Where did she come from? When was she turned?" The brunette shrugged, "She seems so closed off at times, but when she's with Stefan....,"

Damon brushes his hands together to clean the crumbs off as he swallowed the fries he had taken a bite of, "I only know the basics. Stefan and Lexi made sure she stayed far away from me and any other danger that lurks in the night. She was was born in Mystic Falls in 1859, her parents were murdered by a vampire in 1864 and Lexi found her and took her in, raised her as her own."

"How did she...become a vampire?"

"I don't know." Damon shrugged.

"You don't know? Or you don't care to know?"

"I don't know how she was turned. Stefan never talked about it."

▭

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐎𝐓𝐓𝐄 𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐒 𝐇𝐄𝐑 arms over her chest as she looks around the woods, waiting for Stefan to come out of the caved in ground that Bonnie had somehow gotten stuck in, having gotten instructions to meet him there when the sun went down and she was able to leave the house.

Just as quickly as Stefan had gone down, he was back up with Bonnie, "You can open your eyes now."

"Whoa." Bonnie looks around, seeing Charlotte giving her a half smile.

"I didn't want to scare you." Stefan says to the witch in a soft voice, hoping that he could get Bonnie to trust him after everything that Damon had put her through so far.

"How did you know where I was?"

"Well, your grandmother told me what you were doing and I guessed the where." Stefan says, "Lottie met me here when the sun went down. Figured you could use a female friend."

"I heard them. Down there. Behind the door. Are they in pain?" Asked the Bennett witch.

"In the beginning yes. But not anymore." Charlotte spoke up, walking a little closer to Bonnie and Stefan, "They've starved to the point of desiccation."

"But if they have blood, they'll-,"

Stefan frantically shakes his head, "That's not gonna happen, Bonnie. They can't get out, Emily saw to that when she had you to destroy the crystal. You're safe."

"C'mon, let's take a walk." Charlotte holds her arm out for Bonnie, "I promise I won't bite. Witch isn't my type, well, I mean, your species isn't my type. Your gender on the other hand.....,"

Bonnie looks at her in amusement, "You have a thing for girls?"

The Branson girl throws her head back with a laugh as Stefan watches the two girls walk ahead of him, but staying with them just in case, "Oh, Bonnie. I have a thing for everyone."

▭

𝐃𝐀𝐌𝐎𝐍 𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐒 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 down at the bar with a groan.

"Hey, where's your girl?" Bree questions the vampire as she moves to stand in front of him, the bar between the two of them.

"Hmm." Damon turns his head to see if he can spot Elena, "She was right back there."

The vampire stands up from the bar stood he was sitting on, heading for the backdoor where he found Elena's phone laying on the ground but no Doppelganger in sight.

Picking the phone up, he moves around the bar where he finds Elena hanging on to a high platform.

"Damon, no." Elena calls out to him in fear before he's hit with a crowbar, grunting as he hits the ground.

The vampire stands above Damon continuing to smash Damon with it.

"Ow! What the hell!"

The vampire ignores Elena's pleading calls as he reappears with a gas can in hand, pouring the stout liquid over Damon. With a menacing look, the strange vampire growls at the doppelganger, before he goes back to pouring gas over Damon.

"Who are you?" Damon manages to ask in between ragged breaths.

"That's perfect." The vampire - Lee - spoke between clenched teeth. "You have no idea."

"What are you talking about?! What did he do?!" Elena loudly questions the vampire in confusion.

"He killed my girlfriend. Took my daughter's mother away from her, from me." Lee spits with venom dripping from his words, he turns back to Damon to pour more fuel over his body, "What did she do to you, huh? What did she do to you?"

Damon grunts in pain, "Nothing."

"I don't understand." Elena cries.

"My girlfriend and our daughter went to visit Stefan and Damon killed her, got it?" Lee looks over his shoulder towards the human girl, anger fueling his body at the thought of seeing Charlotte break down in his arms as she told him the news of her mother, the only woman he truly loved.

Elena's face scrunches in confusion for a split second, "Lexi? Lexi was your girlfriend? She told me about you, she said that you were human."

Lee has tears in his eyes, "I was."

Elena watches as he turns back towards Damon, pulling a box of matches from his pocket, "Lexi turned you?"

"If you wanna be with someone forever, raise their children with you, you have to live forever." Lee says to her, quickly turning to kick Damon in the ribs as the vampire tries to move from his spot laying on the ground.

"She loved you. She said that when it's real, you can't walk away." Elena recalls Lexi's words back to the vampire, hoping to talk him out of lighting Damon on fire.

"Well, that's a choice you're not gonna have to make."

"Don't. Don't, please, don't hurt him." Elena pleads with Lee.

Lee quickly scrapes the match against the box, the flame quickly lighting the tip, "I'm doing you a favor."

"Lexi loved you, and she was good and that means you're good too. Be better than him. Don't do this, I'm begging you. Please."

Lee yanks Damon from the ground by his jacket before throwing him across the parking lot and into one of the buildings behind them.

Damon grunts out in pain as Lee turns back around to face Elena.

"Thank you."

"It wasn't for you."

▭

❝𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐋, 𝐍𝐎𝐖, 𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐊 who's returned from battle.❞ Sheila stands in the open door of her house as her granddaughter and the two vampire's walk up the stairs of the porch.

Charlotte smiles softly as she leans into Stefan's side, watching the two Bennett witches hug each other.

"Can I talk to your friends for a minute?"

Bonnie nods and walks inside, turning back towards the two vampires with a smile, "Thank you."

"I appreciated your help, Stefan, Charlotte."

Stefan steps a little closer while Charlotte stays rooting to her spot, "You're welcome...Sheila."

"I wasn't sure you remembered."

"October 1969."

"I was barely a teenager."

"And you were leading what was probably the only anti-war sit-in within miles of Mystic Falls." Stefan says, Sheila scoffing quietly under her breath, "You know when you spoke...people were mesmerized. I know I was."

"Until the cops showed up." She smiled, "You took a big risk coming to see me earlier. Letting me read you, realize who you were. It could have gone in a completely different way."

"Well, your family has a....very long history of keeping my secret." Stefan says to the witch, "I knew that I could trust you if you believed that I was worthy of your trust."

"Bonnie knows, doesn't she?"

"Yes."

"Well, please understand, that our loyalty can only be extended so far. This town won't be easy on any of us if they figure it out. And I'll protect my own before anybody else."

Stefan nods his head, "I know that."

"As long as we're clear." Sheila is silent for a moment, "Goodnight, then."