Hello, my lovely readers. In honor of my birthday, I am gifting you with some of my favorite fanfic stories today! On with the show…
Chapter 11: Period of Adjustment
Damon had been home for a week. In some ways it felt like he'd never been stuck at the boarding school; in some ways it felt like he'd been there for a decade. I came over to his house almost every day. We'd hang out by the new pool, staring at the sky and not talking. Then he would break the silence to talk about something he, Enzo and Marcel used to do.
A week after Damon arrived, Caroline suggested that the Mystic Falls Dare Club should become a whole group again.
MFDC
"It just makes sense," Caroline told me, sitting on a swing, and pushing herself back and forth with one foot. "There's no reason for it to be two clubs; now that Damon's back." She looked up at me, through her long lashes. She knew it killed me to say "No" to her.
I pushed my own swing back and then stopped myself with my right foot. "Yeah. Okay."
Caroline watched me through her hair as I pushed my swing back again. She pushed hers back so that we were flying together. "Dare you to jump!" Caroline cried out.
I grinned and pushed myself as high as I could go and then leapt off the swing. Falling on my hands knees on the soft grass, I turned to look up at Caroline, who continued to rock back and forth, the skirt of her cotton candy pink dress flying upward. I flushed and looked away. Pushing myself to my feet, I wiped my hands on my jeans and then smirked at Caroline.
"I dare you to jump!" I shouted to Caroline whose eyes widened.
"What? Are you crazy? I'll get hurt!" Caroline shouted back.
"No, you won't!" I told her, holding out my arms. "I'll catch you!"
Caroline bit her lower lip and pushed her swing to go higher and then her eyes brightened. A second later, she went air-borne, flying through the air like a dove, her arms spread wide.
Upon impact, we tumbled to the ground, a mass of limbs and laughter. "You caught me!" Caroline cried, her face hovering above mine as she pushed her hair back.
"I'll always catch you." I watched her expression change, her eyes questioning me as I reached up, tucking a curl behind her ear and leaning upward. Caroline didn't pull back when I kissed her, lightly, on the lips. She kissed me back.
"I miss you, Nik," Caroline said quietly when I pulled back.
"I miss you, too," I said, kissing her again.
Caroline laid her head down on my chest, and I held her close, wondering what we would tell Damon. Maybe Caroline already told him that whatever it was they were doing was over. Maybe she hadn't officially made up her mind, but it felt like she had, to me.
MFDC
The day that I called a special meeting of the Dare Club together; everyone seemed to be confused about what was going on.
MFDC
"Hello, everyone, I asked you to come so we could discuss what we're doing about the club; now that Damon has come home," I announced.
"Nothing," Tyler said, folding his arms across his chest.
Caroline scoffed from her seat to my left. "No one asked you, Ty."
"I agree with Tyler," Elena added. "I don't see what Damon coming home has to do with our clubs. Unless he wants to start a third chapter, here. Damon?" she looked to Damon who sat to the right of me, at his family's dining room table.
Silas—who never could shut up—decided to speak up. "I think he should. I'll join if he does."
Damon looked at everyone, who looked at him for leadership. Caroline looked at me and I sat back down. Caroline got to her feet. "We want to put the original club back together."
"And then what? You, Nik and Damon can go back to running things, like nothing ever happened?" Tyler snapped, standing up. "All in favor of keeping things the way they are?" He raised his own hand.
Everyone looked from me to Damon to Caroline, except for Elena, who stayed focused on Damon. Kat sighed and stood up. "This is really getting to be a stupid club. I have a baby to play with. Silas, are you coming?"
Silas shook his head. "I'm going to see how this plays out."
Kat rolled her eyes. "Fine," she snapped, pouting and falling back into her chair.
Matt raised a hand. "Yeah?" Damon said, looking bored.
"I kind of liked the old club. It wasn't perfect, but we had a lot less in-fighting," Matt told us.
Damon, Caroline and I looked at each other. "Matt's right," I said. "I think that we should come back together. All in favor?" I held up my hand. Caroline held up hers. Damon held up his.
Almost everyone agreed, except for Tyler, who got to his feet. "Who needs to be part of this stupid club anyway?" he muttered, leaving the room.
"Now, I'm going. What a waste of a great day," Kat groaned.
Silas looked around at us. I think he expected some sort of a fight to break out. When nothing happened, he, too, became bored and left the room.
"Are you sure this is what you want, Damon?" Elena asked, reaching across the table and taking Damon's hand.
Caroline frowned, and got up, leaving the room. I wanted to go after her but I also thought there was more going on that I needed to know.
Damon shrugged. "I guess. If it's good for the club…"
"You can be selfish about this one thing," Elena said quietly.
Damon rolled his eyes. "You always say I'm selfish," he snapped and got up. Elena got up, too, and followed him out of the room.
I got up and went to look for Caroline. I spent half an hour—looking through the various rooms of the boarding house—until I heard a soft whimper coming from one of the closets. Opening the door, I found Caroline, with her knees curled up under her chin. "Close the door," she whispered.
I stepped inside the closet and closed the door behind me. Caroline hadn't turned the light on; so I had to feel my way in the dark. Placing my hands down, I found the floor and sat down. My right hand went out to search for Caroline. I found Caroline's left knee and then I moved my hand to her back—wrapping my arm around her—tugging her to me. Her head fell on my shoulder, her tears soaking my shirt.
We sat in the dark—for a long time—not saying anything. I knew she was hurting. I knew that there was a time that I would have wanted her to hurt, just a little, for hurting me. Not anymore. I pressed my lips to her hair, listening to her sniffle.
When we left the closet, Caroline took my hand and we walked down the hallway and out of the house. I walked her home and kissed her on the cheek. "Bye, Nik."
"Bye, Caroline," I said quietly.
MFDC
Two weeks after Damon came home, I came to his house and found Damon in his room. He was throwing things all over the place. "Where is it?" he yelled.
"Hey, Damon. What's going on?" I asked.
Damon shook his head; becoming frantic. "I can't believe it! Stefan!" he yelled, standing up and stormed out of the room. He ran up the stairs to Stefan's room. "Stefan! Where in the hell did you put it?" Damon shouted, moving across the room, and grabbing a startled Stefan, he began to shake his little brother.
"What?" Stefan cried.
I stepped forward, grabbing Damon by the shoulders and jerking him away from his brother. "Damon, stop it, you're going to hurt him."
Damon tried to pull away from me. I had to use all of my strength to keep him away from Stefan. "My picture of mom! What did you do with it, Stef?" Damon bellowed.
"I didn't take it! I swear, Damon." Stefan looked like he might cry.
"Liar!" Damon yelled. "Give me my picture!"
"I don't have it!" Stefan yelled and ran out of the room.
Damon continued to struggle for a couple of minutes before he calmed down. "Let me go," he said quietly. "I know where it is."
"Where?" I said, letting him go.
"I left it at the damned boarding school," Damon said, sinking to his knees and crying. "I left the only picture of my mother at the damned boarding school."
MFDC
A knock at the front door had me dropping my photo project on the table and running for it. Damon stood just outside. "Hey, Nik," he greeted me.
"Hey," I said, moving aside, so he could come in.
Damon stepped into my living room and moved over to the couch. "What's this?" he asked, looking at the photos of our club that I'd begun to compile.
"It's not done," I replied, coming over to close the book.
"That's obvious," Damon said, picking up the book and flipping to a different page. "First day of school," he said, pointing out a pic of the two us, arms slung around each other's shoulders.
"It's your family," I said, coming to sit down beside Damon.
Damon's eyebrows rose. "Family?"
"Yeah. The club. We're a family. We fight, but we have each other's backs in the end." I watched Damon look back at the book and begin to flip through the pages. He stopped on a pic of Aiden.
"And we're becoming bigger," Damon said with a smile. "How is the little guy?"
"He's getting bigger, every day." I got up and waved for Damon to follow me. We walked upstairs. I stepped into Aiden's room. Hayley sat in a rocking chair, sleeping, while Aiden played with a stuffed monkey. "Hi, there," I called to my baby nephew who looked back at me with huge blue eyes.
"Hey there, kid," Damon called, waving at Aiden, who reached out and grabbed his fingers. "You've got one hell of a grip on ya."
"Hey, guys," Hayley said, sitting up and yawning. "Can you watch him? I really need to sleep in a real bed."
"Use Elijah's. He won't be home 'til late," I suggested.
Hayley nodded and walked out of the room. Damon reached into the crib and pulled Aiden out. I tickled the boy under the chin who let out a giggle. "The girls are going to love you," I said.
"Or boys," Damon said.
My eyebrows rose. "I guess so."
We took the baby downstairs and sat him between us. I picked up the photo album and held it up for Aiden to look at. He started cooing when he saw pics of his dad. And then his mom. And me, Bekah, Kol, Henrik. "Yeah. We're your family," I told the baby. "And soon you'll be able to join the club and give your mommy and daddy lots of headaches."
Damon and I laughed as Aiden giggled and grabbed at the end of the album.
MFDC
Damon had been home—for over a month—when we decided to have a real dare party. It was hosted at the Salvatores', because they had more room. Damon seemed to be getting back to his old self, or so I thought.
"Okay. So we're going to have a party outside. No adults allowed," Damon told me.
I nodded along. "Does that include Silas?"
Damon rolled his eyes. "I don't think Uncle Silas will ever be a real adult." He grinned. "It's time to get our dare on." I smirked at him. It was good to see him happy again.
Our fellow Dare Clubbers arrived in groups. Kat and her girls in their swim suits, covered by tank tops and skimpy shorts. Mason and Ric. Care, Bonnie and Elena, Jer. Bekah, Kol and Elijah arrived last.
"I dare you to stand upside down in the pool, for five minutes," Damon told Katherine.
Kat rolled her eyes. "Damon, are you trying to kill me?"
"If I said 'Yes;' would that be a problem for you?" Damon inquired with a smile.
"Pass to…" Kat looked around the group. "Elijah."
"What?" Elijah looked startled.
"My kid has one parent. Yours has two," Kat told Elijah. "Are you going to take the dare, or get thrown out of the club?"
Hayley jumped in. "I'll do it."
"What? No!" Elijah protested while Hayley took her tank top off and dropped her shorts.
Hayley smiled and walked over, kissing Elijah on the check. "Tell our baby that his mother is a dare-devil; if I don't make it."
"Hayley!" Elijah shouted when she dove into the pool.
Kat smirked. "Looks like your ex is braver than you are, Elijah," she quipped.
Elijah glared at her. "This is not funny, Katherine."
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't ask her to volunteer to do the stupid dare. If you had just done it—she wouldn't be risking her life for yours," Kat shot back.
Elijah opened his mouth at the same time that Silas came outside. "What's going on?" he asked us.
"I'm trying to count!" Caroline shouted—moving to the edge of the pool—with a watch that she must have borrowed from someone. Elijah moved to sit beside the edge of the pool, beside Caroline.
Everyone stood, watching. I could feel the tension mounting and the minutes crawled by. At four minutes, Hayley's body started to tip over, but then she corrected her position.
"Damn. She's good," Kat said, sitting down on the pool's edge and looking downward. As four and half minutes passed, Elijah jerked his shirt off and then his pants.
"What are you doing?" Kat asked him.
"I'm going to get the mother of my child out of there as soon as five minutes elapses." Elijah stood at the pool edge, waiting.
"Time!" Caroline shouted, throwing her arms in the air. Elijah dove into the pool and Hayley fell over.
I sucked in a deep breath when my brother resurfaced, laying Hayley beside the pool's edge and hopped out to sit beside her. Hayley sat up and spat out some water. "You know that I can hold my breath under water for five minutes and fifteen seconds?" she asked us with a laugh.
"Idiotic," Elijah shouted, stepping back and shaking his head.
Damon rolled his eyes. "Total waste of a dare."
"You think so?" Hayley asked him. "I dare you to eat a marble."
"Hayley!" Elijah snapped.
Hayley shrugged. "It'll pass. Eventually. Besides, Damon's got to learn that karma is a bitch."
"And so are you," Damon replied. "Marble it is. Stef, go get me a marble from your collection, will ya?" Stefan left the poolside and ran into the house. He appeared two minutes later, with a small, blue marble. "Down the hatch!" Damon said and popped the marble into his mouth. "Would have tasted better with ketchup." Looking at the group, he grinned. "Kat, I dare you to strip naked and run from one end of the street to the other."
"No problem," Kat said and we went around out to the front lawn to watch Kat take off all of her clothes and then to run up and down the street. When she came back, she dressed and then smirked at Damon. "Too many dares, too little time. Hmm… I think I want you to…open your father's safe and give me a thousand dollars."
"Kat!" Jenna protested. "Your mom and dad will kill you if they find you did that."
"Who's going to tell them, Jenna!" Kat snapped, glaring at her cousin. Jenna gulped and crossed her arms over her chest.
We walked back inside the house and into the great room. Silas removed the painting that the safe stood behind. Damon climbed on a chair and pressed his ear to the wall. He spun, and spun the lock, until a soft clicking sounded through a room.
"Got it!" Damon said with a huge grin.
Kat smirked as Damon pulled the door open and placed his hand inside it. He removed what looked like a lot of money. Counting, he offered Kat ten hundred dollar bills before taking three more and pocketing them. "Thank you, Mr. Salvatore," Kat said as Damon closed the safe.
"Next dare goes to…" Damon looked at us again. "Caroline."
Caroline gulped. "Don't ask me to do anything painful," she said quietly.
"Nope. I want you to tell me how long you've been cheating on me with Nik?" Damon asked, folding his arms over his chest and smiling, like it was a joke.
"Damon." Caroline looked around the group. "I…" Her eyes moved over the group. Everyone just stared at her. When her gaze fell on Damon, her eyes narrowed and her hands balled at her sides. "That's not a dare, Damon," she shot back.
"Nope. It isn't. It's more of a truth." Damon folded his arms over his chest. "How 'bout I dare you to be brave and tell us the truth?"
"Damon, leave her alone," I snapped. Damon might be my friend but I was not going to stand aside and allow him to bully Caroline like this.
Damon scoffed. "You have got to be kidding me. Nik, she doesn't care about you or me. She's just like Kat. She'll chase any guy who looks at her cross-eyed."
"You're a pig, Damon!" Bonnie shouted.
"Better a pig than a witch!" Damon snapped back.
"Hey!" Bekah cried out, her lower lip wobbling.
Damon rolled his eyes. "Not you, kid."
"Maybe you should go home, Damon," Hayley said.
"Maybe you should shut up, Hayley. Or go back to whatever back-wood hellhole you were born in!" Damon shouted.
"Damon, stop! Now! Before you say something you'll regret," Elijah counseled, his eyes darkening.
"Let him say what he needs to say. He's obviously got things to get off his chest," Silas snapped at Elijah. Elijah turned to Silas and I thought my brother was about to hit him. Part of me wished he would. I really could not stand Silas.
Damon interrupted my thoughts. "Come on, Caroline, we're all waiting. We're all waiting to hear about how you were kissing Klaus." Caroline just stared at Damon. "I came to see you and your mom said you were at the park. So, I went there, so we could hang out. And I saw you. You were kissing Klaus. You could have told me you still liked him."
Caroline let out a sound of anger. "You still like Elena. And I'm not sorry. I liked Nik first. You knew that. You didn't care. And now you're yelling at me, because…because I hurt your feelings, Damon?" Rolling her eyes, Caroline shook her head. "You're a jerk. You've always been a jerk."
"At least I own it!" Damon yelled at her. "And I don't like Elena. That's like liking Bonnie."
"What?" Elena shrieked. "You are a huge jerk!" she shouted. Walking over to Damon, she knocked him over and then stomped away.
Damon looked shocked. His eyes scanned the rest of us before he got to his feet, dusted himself off and looked around at us. "It's Caroline turn to dare someone."
"I dare you, Damon, to stop acting like such a jerk!" Caroline snarled.
"Lame," Damon said, chuckling. "Looks like it is my turn, again." Rubbing his hands together, he looked around at the rest of us. "Who wants to be my next victim?"
"I'm going home," Caroline told the group.
"I'll walk with you," Bonnie said.
"Oh, no, you don't. I dare you, Bonnie, to…hmm…this is a hard one for some reason." Damon rubbed his chin. "Okay. I got it. I dare you, Bonnie, to kiss Caroline, since you like her so much."
"Are you serious?!" Caroline shouted. "Damon, let it go!"
"Just do it!" Damon yelled at Bonnie.
Bonnie sighed. "Fine." She walked over to Caroline and kissed her. "Happy now?"
"That wasn't as cool as I thought it would be," Damon sighed. "Do your worst."
"I'm going home," Bonnie told us.
"No. You have to dare someone first. Then you can go," Damon informed Bonnie with a smirk.
"Fine. I dare you to kiss Klaus," Bonnie snapped.
"Why?" I groaned.
"Fine. It's not like we haven't swapped spit thanks to our girlfriend, Care Bear." Damon came over to me and kissed me. I didn't really feel anything which was nice to know. At least our teenage years would not end up being even more awkward due to being attracted to my best friend.
For a moment, Damon paused and then shook his head. "Huh. Well, the good news is that Nik is a good kisser so I get it, Care. The bad news is that I still like girls. Damn. I was really hoping to end that phase of my life because you're all a bunch of –"
"Damon, stop talking," Elijah ordered Damon who shrugged.
"If you say so," Damon sighed. "I dare B—"
"Dare someone else. I am out of here," Bonnie threw her hands up and walked away. Caroline followed Bonnie. Hayley nodded at us before turning and followed the younger girls home.
Kat yawned. "I am tired of this. Let's go, ladies."
"See you tonight?" Silas called after her.
Kat winked at him, offering a slow grin. Elijah's mouth tightened but he did not say anything. "Niklaus, shall we?"
"You're leaving?" Damon asked me.
"You want me to stay?" I asked him.
Damon shrugged. "Whatever. Stay. Leave. Doesn't matter. Caroline's probably waiting up for you anyway."
"Damon…" I didn't know what to say. We'd been through this before. Only I was the one who got hurt. And I did not take it very well either.
"Yeah. Yeah. I know. You like her. She likes you. Yadda Yadda. Go. Be happy, man." Damon waved me off. "I have a little brother to torment."
I hesitated. I wanted to track Caroline down. Now that everyone knew that she was my girl, again, I did not want to be apart from her. But I was worried about Damon. Do I stay?
"Go." Damon told me with a laugh. "I'm fine."
"Okay," I replied, although I felt my stomach twisting. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Yup." Damon nodded. "You will."
I did not know that a number of things would make this day look like one of our more cheerful ones as childhood was placed on pause and adulthood's horrors began to set in.
Thank you for reading, faving, following and reviewing.
Answers to guest review:
ScarletRose: I miss Damon, too! Thank you for reviewing!
Melissa: Thank you. I wish I could update the story more often. There have a lot of things happening that have been creating problems; so I cannot update nearly as often as I would like to. Right now, the Nik/Care/Damon friendship is a bit strained but they will come back together because they will need each other.
Peace,
Jessica