Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries and never will, but I do own Charlene Davis and Megan Swann and any other characters I come up with.

Author's Note: And here is the second part of Family Ties! I'm glad you're liking the new story and hope you continue to enjoy the reboot of Surviving in the World of Vampires. Please leave reviews!

After Caroline informed them of everything, Charlene grew even more distain for Damon Salvatore. Why was he trying to ruin his brother's relationship with her best friend? Did he really hate Stefan that much? Charlene couldn't imagine hating her siblings that much.

"Well, that's Damon side of the story." Charlene finally spoke up, unable to hide the anger she was feeling. "You can't really believe his side of the story, do you Care?"

Caroline stared for a moment before she shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know…he was pretty convincing."

Charlene forced herself not to roll her eyes. "Just because what someone says is convincing, doesn't mean it's the truth, Caroline." Shaking her head, she stood up from the chair. "Besides, I trust Stefan and Megan trusts him too, that's all that matters." Done with this conversation, she changed it, turning to look at Bonnie. "I guess I'll see you and Megan at the house later?" They were meeting up at her and Elena's house to get ready for the party there.

Bonnie nodded. With that, she left to continue her shift, brushing by Tyler and Vicki. Thankfully, neither of them saw her, too busy with their conversation but Charlene took notice to Jeremy, who was watching them closely. She went over to check on him.

"Are you doing alright over here?" Charlene asked.

"Fine." He responded shortly. He was still mad at her for not say anything to Elena.

She sighed. "Look, earlier with Elena, there was nothing I could have done about that." She told him gently as she placed a hand on her brother's shoulder.

Jeremy shoved her hand off. "Still, that's mom and dad's stuff. It belongs to us, no one else."

Charlene said nothing for a moment. "I know and I might not been able to do anything about her loaning it to Mrs. Lockwood…but I did manage to get something…" At his confused look, she pulled out the pocket watch he had grabbed from their parents stuff. Slowly, he took it from her, then looked up at Charlene, the emotion clear in his eyes. She smiled softly. "I know you don't believe me when I tell you this, but I love you, Jer." With that, Charlene patted his shoulder one last time before she went off to go back to work before she got in trouble by her boss.

Before she knew it, her shift was over and she could finally go home. Charlene quickly got out of there, wanting to get home before Bonnie and Megan showed up. Earlier she had gotten her dress, so that was already taken care of.

On her way back home, she heard the familiar voice of Tyler calling out her name. Charlene groaned to herself. She should have known she wouldn't be able to avoid him forever. Charlene stopped and waited for him to catch up to her.

"What do you want?" she asked, sighing heavily.

"You've been avoiding me." Tyler responded bluntly as if she didn't know.

Charlene rolled her eyes. "Yes, and there's a reason for it." She turned back around and started walking again with Tyler right beside her.

"And what's that?"

She couldn't help roll her eyes again. "Because, I'm still mad at you for cheating on me with Vicki Donavan."

This time, Tyler rolled his eyes. "Come on, Charlie…"

Charlene quickly cut him off, glaring at him. "Don't call me that. You don't have the right to call me that anymore."

"Okay, sorry." Tyler rolled his eyes. "But seriously, Charlene, that happened months ago. You can't seriously still be that pissed off at me."

She snorted. "Well, I am."

Tyler grabbed her arm, causing her to stop walking. "Look, I'm sorry. Just forgive me."

Charlene roughly pulled her arm away. "No. And you continuing to push me, isn't going to make me forgive you anytime sooner." She walked away from him, but he still followed her. "Why are you following me?"

"We're going to the same place, so I thought we could go together." Tyler explained with a smirk. Great, just my luck. Charlene thought bitterly. "I'm picking up that stuff for my mom."

She stared hard at him for a moment before she sighed. "Fine, but don't talk to me."

"As you wish." Tyler agreed, using the line from one of her favorite movies, the Princess Bride, and Charlene couldn't stop the smile from appearing on her face. He noticed, causing her to school her face with an uncaring look.

The walk seemed to drag by now with Tyler, thankfully, not talking to her. Soon, it was finally over. Charlene opened the door with a key. Jeremy must have been about to open the door because he was there when she did. He scowled at the sight of Tyler. Charlene had already gone through the door as Jeremy tried to close the door on Tyler.

The blonde sighed inwardly.

But Tyler stopped him from the closing it on him. "I'm here for my mom." He told him calmly. "I was supposed to pick up a box of stuff."

"He's telling the truth." Charlene confirmed as Elena showed up, holding the box.

"Right here." Her sister announced as she joined them at the front door. "Be careful with it." She warned, handing the box over to Tyler.

Jeremy stepped forward threateningly. "Yeah, be careful with it, dick."

Charlene spoke before Elena could say anything. "Jeremy, please, not now." she warned, placing a hand on his arm. She didn't like having to stick up for Tyler but after what happened last time with them, it was needed. Last thing they needed was a fight to start on the front porch.

"I'm fine." Tyler reassured. "He's just being a punk."

Jeremy's glare hardened. "I got your punk." Before

Elena cut in before this continued. "Look, Tyler, maybe you should go." Though it sounded like a suggestion, it was an order. "Tell your mom we'll see her tonight." She grabbed onto Charlene's hand as they left the boys, hopefully with them not killing each other. "Since you're here now, you can help me pick out a dress."

"Oh the joys of being a sister." Charlene said sarcastically, but she grinned in Elena's direction to show she was just teasing.

Her sister stuck her tongue out at her in response. Charlene laughed loudly.

While it was fun hanging out with Stefan, Megan was excited to have girl time with her favorite people. She loved going to these kind of parties, which was the opposite of Charlene. Her blonde best friend dreaded having to go to parties, especially ones like the Founder's Party. Unfortunately for her, she had to go because she was part of the Founding Families, so it wasn't like she had a choice.

"I hate going to these things." Charlene winced as Megan fixed her hair. They were in the blonde's bedroom getting ready while Elena and Bonnie were downstairs, trying to figure out what color nail polish to wear. "I know I have to but still."

"I don't know why you hate it so much." Megan said cheerfully. "It's so much fun, the dancing, the people, and the outfits." That was her favorite part of it all, seeing what everyone was wearing.

"I just hate having to talk to people I don't even like." Charlene mumbled.

Megan pouted at her. "And here I thought I was your best friend." She pretended to cry.

"Oh, stop being so dramatic." Charlene rolled her eyes. However, she couldn't help but laugh.

Megan smiled in response, glad she could make her best friend laugh while doing something Charlene hated. Finally, she finished with Charlene's hair. It was now in a high bun with a few strands framing her face.

"There you go. All done." Megan smiled. "And you look beau-ti-ful." She giggled and Charlene laughed too.

"Thank you." There was silence for a moment before Charlene spoke up again, her tone was a little more serious and Megan was worried. "So, um, did Bonnie ever tell about what we learned about Stefan from Caroline?"

Megan shook her hand, frowning. "No, why? Did she tell you something?"

"Yeah…but it honestly doesn't matter what it was. She got the information from Damon."

This made Megan less worried. "Yeah." She agreed.

She wouldn't believe anything that Damon said about Stefan, so she honestly didn't want to know. Megan was glad Charlene told her and not Bonnie because her sister would have told her anyway, even if it did come from Damon Salvatore. Bonnie would only tell her because she didn't want her to get hurt.

"I wasn't even supposed to mention it to you, Caroline made me swear not to tell you, but you needed to know. Don't let her know I told you though, she'd kill me if you found out I told you."

Megan nodded. "Don't worry, I won't tell her." Just then, there was the sound of angry footsteps going up the steps, startling the two. "What…what was that?"

"I don't know…" Charlene muttered. "I'll go check…be right back."

As she left to go do that, Megan started on doing her hair, wondering what exactly Caroline told Charlene and Bonnie. It didn't really matter as it wouldn't change her mind about being with Stefan. It was going to take more than Damon sprouting stories to make her stop seeing him.

Charlene followed the noise into Jeremy's bedroom where Elena was, hands on her hips and glaring at their brother. Whatever was going on, the way her sister was standing, it wasn't a good thing.

Elena sounded angry when she spoke. "The pocket watch. Where is it?"

Charlene winced at the mention of it. Great…how did she find out about that?

A fake confused look appeared on Jeremy's face. "What watch?" he asked.

"The one you stole from mom's box," Elena snapped angrily. "Look, Mrs. Lockwood just called me, freaking out. It was on the list, Jeremy. And she can't find it, and she thinks she's the one who lost it."

"Elena, it's not Jer's fault." Charlene said, interrupting her siblings.

Jeremy shook his head as Elena looked back at her, confused. "Char, you don't have to." He looked at Elena, putting the glare back on his face. "Maybe she did lose it. Maybe Tyler took it."

"Don't even play that card, Jeremy." Elena scolded and Charlene winced, feeling bad that her sister was getting onto Jeremy when it wasn't his fault…but it was sweet he wanted to take the blame for her, which wasn't like him, at least nowadays it wasn't. "If I go online, am I going to find it on eBay?"

"Elena, wait." Her sister looked over at her and Charlene sighed heavily. "It's not Jeremy's fault. I was the one who took the watch and I gave it to Jeremy."

Elena stared at her in disbelief. "Char, why would you do that? You knew we had that on the list. And you gave it to him, knowing he could sell it."

Charlene winced. "I know, I'm sorry." Though she knew he wouldn't have sold it, it was too special to him to sell it.

Elena turned back to Jeremy and she scowled at him. "Did you sell it, Jer? Is that how you pay for your pot?"

He glared at her in response. "Screw you!" He crossed over to his bookshelf and pulled out the pocket watch from behind one of the books there before going back over to Charlene and Elena. He tangled the pocket watch in front of Elena. "I would never sell this okay?"

"Why did you give it to him?" Elena's question was directed towards Charlene.

"Because it's his, Elena." Charlene informed her.

Jeremy took over. "Dad said it goes to the first-born son." He told Elena angrily. "His father gave it to him, and now what?" He smacked the watch in Elena's open palm.

Elena felt bad immediately. "And he was going to give it to you…" she said, guilt in her tone as Charlene watched on sadly.

"Yeah…" Jeremy mumbled.

Her sister didn't say anything for a moment. "Look, Jeremy, it's still yours, okay?" she said. "Mom promised Mrs. Lockwood. What do you want me to do?"

"Just take it and get out." Jeremy growled, putting his headphones back on.

Elena sighed, then glanced at Charlene, before she left the room. Charlene hated this for her brother, but like Elena said, what could she do about it. Jeremy would get the watch back, so it wouldn't be gone forever. That didn't matter though, he wanted to keep it.

Charlene sighed as she gave her bother one last look before she left too, rejoining Megan back into the bedroom. She looked concerned.

"Is everything alright?" Megan asked. She wasn't in her robe anymore, but in her dress. Charlene didn't realize she was gone for that long.

She nodded. "Everything's fine…it's Jeremy." Megan smiled sympathetically as she eyed her dress. Her best friend wore a bright pink halter dress and the skirt went to her knees. It looked great on her. She had her hair done as well, it was curled up and now touched her shoulders, and she had a headband on with a pink rose on it, matching her dress. "You look amazing, Meg!" she complimented enthusiastically, forgetting about what happened with Jeremy for the time being.

Megan smiled brightly. "Thank you! Think Stefan will like it?"

"If he doesn't, he's crazy." Charlene giggled and her best friend giggled too.

Then Megan clapped her hands. "Okay! Now, let's get you in your dress!"

Charlene nodded in agreement.

TBC...

In...

Family Ties, Part 3...

SO, here's a question for you guys, do you think that Charlene should find out about vampires earlier than Megan? It would be in the same episode where Megan finds out, but not in the same way because she'll be involved in the Damon and Vicki storyline. Would you guys like to see that? Let me know in your reviews? Anyway, please review and tell me what you thought! :D