A/N: Thank you all for the reviews/favourites/alerts, I'm happy that people are still willing to read this story. :) So, this story is going to be AU for a few chapters, but I might start to tie the story into the show's plots. We'll see. Anyway, drop me a review and tell me what you think!

Small Things

Chapter One: Found.

Alicia wasn't a heavy sleeper, her mind always buzzing with images and thoughts. But, she was about to drop into a deep sleep, thinking of fields of green and a sky of light blue. But, a sound pulled her out of her thoughts. She thought she heard it, the sounds of struggle. She was about to roll back onto her side and pull the blanket up to her chin to hope that the noises would stop, that she was imagining them, but she heard it again.

Thud.

She sat up, staring at her closed door as she slowly pulled the covers off of her and padded carefully over to the door, hoping that she wouldn't alert the thing or person on the other side of the door to her presence. She placed a hand on the door knob, slowly turning it and the door opened with a light click. She placed a small hand on the door and pushed the door open slowly, planning to go her mother's room to wake her. But, she ended up standing at the banister of the stairs and watched the scene before her.

Her father's body was laying on the floor, limp like an abandoned puppet. There was a liquid redness pooling around his head, and Alicia knew that something was very wrong. She watched as the black haired stranger dropped her mother onto the floor, her neck twisting at an odd angle. Alicia jumped back from the banister as the man's gaze locked with hers.

He was a monster, the whites of his eyes blood red with black veins surrounding his eyes. His gaze was intense, hard. There was a bit of surprise in there, also, but it disappeared quickly as Alicia turned to run down the hall.

The man was in front of her suddenly, as if he had been there all along. His hands gripped onto her shoulders tightly, keeping her from backing away and running in the other direction. Alicia screamed, flailing and hitting the strangers arms as he bent down to her eye level.

Alicia's met a pair of blue eyes that seemed so familiar to her. They were almost the exact same shade as her own, and she found herself just staring at the man in front of her. She watched, frightened, as his pupils dilated. He started talking to her then, her ears focused solely on his voice, and her eyes on his.

"You are calm." he said, an unexplained calmness washing over her, making her tense arms and legs relax. Her fingers loosened, her hands dropping to rest at her sides. Alicia's blue eyes never leaving his.

"You are not going to remember anything that happened here, your parents left you and that's all you know."

My parents left me...Alicia thought to herself, she could see her mother leaving the house, her father out in front of her. She could see her mother glance back at her with an expressionless stare before she closed the door behind her, leaving Alicia standing in the room by herself.

"You want to sleep." Alicia could hear his voice break through her "memory", she suddenly felt really tired. Alicia's eyes drooped, the last thing she saw being the man's eyes before she saw blackness.

Damon let the child fall against his shoulder, her cheek pressed against the black fabric of his shirt. It would look like she trustingly rested her head against his shoulder, though it wasn't really real trust. Damon picked up the girl, letting her rest on his hip as he held a hand in her black hair, keeping her cheek pressed against his shirt.

A part of him, the part that he usually pushed to the back of his head, told him that he had promised not to come back for her. That he should place her down on her bed and let the police find her in the morning. But, the "now" Damon was focused on the fact that she was resting against his shoulder and that he wanted to keep her this time.

"Come on, Alicia." he muttered, adjusting her slightly. "Dad's got you."

He headed down the stairs to the mess of bodies and blood on the floor, Damon giving the man and woman there a fleeting glance as he headed out into the night with Alicia in his arms.

He reached the boarding house about an hour later, Alicia sleeping peacefully in his arms. He used his back to push open the front door, using his free hand to close it shut again. He could hear his brother talking with Elena in the next room, the conversation stopping, Damon knowing that they had heard him. He walked forwards with a quick stride, not really caring if they saw Alicia in his arms.

His brother stood quickly once he saw what was in his arms, his eyes widening slightly. Stefan walked forwards, giving Damon one of his brooding looks.

"Damon?" Stefan asked, Damon pausing with raised eyebrows. Elena came to stand beside Stefan, a confused look on her face. That quickly changed to one of alarm once she saw what he was holding.

"Is that a child?" she asked, Damon glancing down at the sleeping girl in his arms before he looked up at Elena with one of his smirks.

"Yes she is." he said, sounding like it was a normal occurrence for him to bring abandoned children home with him.

"Is..." Elena paused, sounding like she was uncertain to ask the next part of her question. "Is she...dead?"

"No!" Damon said, trying to sound offended. "You think I would kill an innocent child? I would never."

"Damon." Stefan said in his warning tone, "I don't want to know why you wanted to kidnap a kid from her bed in the middle of the night, but you need to return her back."

"A little to late for that." Damon said, "I might have killed her parents."

"What?" Elena asked, eyes wide. "Damon-"

"-she's not..." Stefan started, looking at his brother with a uncertain look. "She's not Alicia, is she?" He saw the look on his brother face, Stefan's voice becoming hard. "You didn't."

Damon's mouth lifted up into a smirk, "I did." He mocked, looking down at the child in his arms.

Stefan gave him an aspirated look, "Damon, you said you weren't going to go back for her. You made a promise."

"Yeah, well, I had to take her back. Her father was planning something, and I honestly thought that I couldn't have shown up at a better time."

"What's going on?" Elena asked, looking lost. Stefan looked at her, opening his mouth when Damon spoke up.

"Elena, this girl in my arms, her name is Alicia." he said, Elena's eyes moving down towards the sleeping girl in his arms.

"I'm her father." Damon finished.