Burying a body was definitely not an experience Bernie wanted to repeat often, if ever. It was dirty, gross, and more than a little unnerving. After traipsing through the woods for a few hours they returned to the house, where Stefan led her back to the room she woke up in.
"The house is proofed so we can close up most of it from the sun but it would probably be better if you stay in here for the day. Is that okay?" He asked her as he started closing the windows and heavy drapes.
"It should be fine, I'm pretty wiped out so I'll probably just konk out." She replied stretching and bringing her attention to the now brown stain down her front. "I do have one condition though which would be I get some new clothes and you wash the ones you dirtied when you tried to kill me." She walked over to where her clothes had been dropped earlier and picked them up.
Stefan nodded and grabbed the clothes from her, "I'll throw these in the wash and grab you something else from my room." He left the room but—luckily—was back before Bernie could get too fidgety.
"Uh I have one more question." She asked as she took the new clothes from him, "As much as I love hanging here with you guys I can explain going missing for a weekend to my Uncles but when it gets into weekdays things get messy. My point is, when exactly can I go out during the day?"
"Elena has a friend who is witch so today we are going to see her about getting you a daylight ring. If everything goes as planned you should get it tonight and you will be out and about by tomorrow." He replied with a chuckle.
"Sweet, thanks for your help I guess." Bernie awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck, "Even though this is kind of all your fault anyway."
Stefan chuckled again, "Night Bernie." He replied simply, probably to save her from continuing her train of thought.
"Night Stefan."
He left without another word and she got to changing. It was the first time she noticed she hadn't actually been wearing a bra this whole time since she had just gone out in her sports bra earlier (she was glad that whoever that had changed her had left her underwear on though). She felt as if she should be embarrassed but she couldn't bring herself to care. She decided to take a shower to get all of the grime off of herself before putting on the new shirt and boxers Stefan had got for her.
Once she was clean and covered she hopped in the decent sized bed and got cozy. She didn't even think vampires could get this tired but the excitement of the day must have gotten to her because as soon as her head hit the soft pillows she was out like a candle.
She woke up with her stomach growling and decided the best option was to let out a loud groan. She sighed, resigning herself to the fact that she had to get up so like usually she just rolled out of the bed until she fell on the ground with a loud thump. She was quite happy to note that whatever pain it brought her quickly disappeared. Before she could bring herself to actually stand up the door burst open someone ran in the room. She tilted her head up and was met with a disgruntled looking Stefan.
"Bernie are you okay? We heard a thump." He asked crouching down so he was closer to her level.
She lifted her hand of and waved it dismissively, "Eh it's just part of my waking up ritual."
"You fall out of bed as a ritual?" He asked, looking a bit confused.
"More like roll out of bed." She replied as she brought her arms up and pushed off the ground before standing up fully and stretching, "That sounds more graceful."
"Not by much." Stefan smirked a bit and Bernie let out a chuckle.
"But it's something mister." She said in her best stern voice before laughing again, "That's beside the point though. There is a reason my nap was interrupted which would be the fact that I feel like there is in angry badger in my stomach."
It was Stefan's turn to laugh as started walking to the door, gesturing for her to follow. "The sun went down about an hour ago but you looked tired so I didn't want to wake you."
"Should have, now my sleep schedule is going to be even more messed up." Bernie grumbled, happy to have something to complain about. "How am I going to get 'food' when I'm not here?" Bernie changed the subject as her stomach let out another growl that sounded more like a howl.
"We will probably just give you bags to last a few days and then you can get more once you finish those. It will be easier than showing you how to get them from the hospital yourself. Hopefully you will have somewhere to hide them?" Stefan replied as he led her down some dark steps into the basement.
"Yah we have a fridge we keep in the garage that Phil and Dom usually stay away from unless they want meat or soda. It'll be pretty easy to hide them in there and unless they get curious they probably won't see it." She answered right when they stopped in front of one of the large refrigerators that looked more like a box than a fridge. Stefan opened it up and it was filled with blood bags.
Without even trying her fangs extended and with a nod from Stefan she grabbed one and bit into it. She let the liquid slide down her throat and examined the taste. Besides the temperature difference it tasted a little stale or maybe flat like a soda that had been sitting out for a while. It was still delicious though and Bernie didn't see why she couldn't live off of them. Of course she will always know the real deal is better but she believed she had enough self-control and morals to not care.
She drank five, surprised by her appetite, before feeling sated. "Since you are a new vampire you will have a large appetite but after a while it will dull down so you don't need as much blood." Stefan explained as she wiped her mouth off. "Everything will also be really intense for you for a while, emotions, senses, the works." Bernie nodded she had been feeling a little off and she was glad it was vampire related more than it was that time of the month.
They cleaned up the small mess she made ripping into the first few before Stefan grabbed a small cooler and packed as many bags as he could fit. He nodded his head at his packing skills before they made their way back up the stairs.
"Did everything go to plan with the witch?" She asked once they were back on the ground level, she looked around but she didn't see Elena or Damon.
"It actually did, which is surprising since nothing ever seems to go right for us." Stefan replied as he enthusiastically lead her into the living room. "The witch has to pick the ring so I hope you like it because we can't really change it." He picked up an envelope that was on the coffee table and handed it to her. She opened it and pulled out the ring and was surprised that she did actually really like it.
It was a copper ring and the shank was designed so it looked like branches with leaves coming off of it. Her favorite part though, was that each leaf actually had a small circular emerald in it. She took it and slipped it on her right ring finger, a little suspicious when it fit perfectly.
She looked up at Stefan and he raised his hands to show his innocence, "Hey don't look at me it has to be some witch mumbo jumbo because that's what happened with mine."
Bernie raised an eyebrow but decided to let it go. "OK well is there anything else special I need to do because I kind of want to go home."
Stefan shook his head, "Nah I think that's it. Let me just get your clothes and shoes and you will be good."
Stefan walked out of the room and returned a moment later with her tennis shoes and running clothes. She took him and decided to just put on the shoes, "I'm stealing your shirt and boxers because I find them extremely comfortable and they will help me with my uncles." She told him as he led her to the front door, her cooler of blood in hand.
He laughed as he followed her outside, directing her to a nice looking car. "Do I want to know why it will help you with your uncles?" He asked, opening her door then getting in the driver's seat.
"Let's just say my uncles are huge pervs." Stefan laughed and she rolled her eyes. The drive from The Salvatore house to hers wasn't long due to the small town so they reached the nice little two story in no time.
Before she got out of the car she made sure to look Stefan in the eye to show she was serious, "Thanks for not completely killing me bro, it would have been a bummer." Stefan seemed to catch her real gratitude through the casual words.
"Any time," He replied with a small smile. "If you need anything here is my number and I will see you at school tomorrow." He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to her. She checked the ten didgit number before tucking it with her clothes.
"Bye vampy buddy." She said as she got out of the car, making sure to grab all of her stuff.
"Bye Bernie." He replied making sure she was halfway up her walkway before driving away. She shook her head with a smile as she walked up the rest of the pathway. She was faced with a new dilemma though, when she grabbed her front door handle and tried to walk inside.
It wasn't like it was locked but more like an invisible force was keeping her out and cursed the Salvatore brothers for not warning her that this particular inviting in myth was true. She sat there for ten minutes trying to think of a way to casually get her uncles to invite her in to her own house but was luckily saved from more thinking when the door flew open and Dom appeared.
"What are you doing silly? You are going to catch a cold come in here silly." He laughed gesturing for her to enter the house and Bernie let out an internal sigh of a relief.
"A cold in sixty five degree weather?" She sassed, once she was in the house with the door closed.
"It's an expression kind of." Was Dom's reply as he bustled into the living room where Phillip was already sitting.
She stood there awkwardly as they stared at her until finally Dom broke. "Are you going to tell us about your adventure or not?! I have some serious questions like what's up with the cooler? And why are you wearing boy's clothes? And who was the hottie that dropped you off? Or most importantly did it hurt?"
Bernie let out a chuckle and answered the best she could, "The weekend was pretty crazy and I'm not entirely sure how everything went down so I don't have much to say. The cooler is unimportant. My clothes got dirty and I needed something to wear. The hottie is Stefan and he goes to my school. And nothing hurt because nothing happened."
Dom pouted, like actual five-year-old-pout, and even Phillip looked sad. "You're no fun. You know we are going to find out what happened eventually."
"The scary part is I know you will." Bernie sighed and ran a hand down her face. "I'm going to go up to my room. Long weekend and stuff."
They said their goodbyes and Bernie snuck off to hide the blood in the back of one of the unused drawers in the fridge in their garage, she would find a better hiding place later, before she headed up to her room. She plopped down on her bed, weirdly tired even though she had spent the whole day sleeping.
She didn't bother to change out of Stefan's clothes as she grabbed her IPod and ear buds (which were hiding in her clean pile of clothes) before putting on Closer by The Tiny. She lay back on her bed and closed her eyes, easily drifting off to sleep.
Disclaimer: All that is owned is Bernie
-I put a link up on my bio of Bernie's ring if you want to check it out since my describing skills on that lacked greatly (it's kind of something you have to see)
-P.S. All of the songs I mention in this are usually songs I listen to when I write and (I personally think) they are all good so you know if you want to check them out ;)
