A/N: Now this chapter is a little shorter than usual, but has some things in it that should make-up for that. I know you guys will like it, but let me know for sure with a review at the end! XD P.S. This episode is very different to the actual one. Just a warning. And the talk between Stefan and Damon doesn't happen at the end.
Disclaimer: I don't own TVD
UPDATE: This chapter was rewritten on the 27th of January 2015. Note: I change POV's quite a bit in this chapter, from 1st to 2nd person. I don't like marking the changes in the chapter because I feel like it interrupts the flow, so it'll be marked with only a page break. Thanks, and enjoy! :)
I pulled open the door to the fridge, leaning down to peer inside. There was a cube of cheese on the top shelf, a bottle of soda water in the door and half an onion in the drawer at the bottom. I scowled. "Damon!" I paused, tilting my head as I waited for his answer. I frowned when I didn't receive one, sifting through the sounds of the birds in the trees and the bats in the attic until I heard him in Stefan's room, on the phone to Elena. "Damon!" I yelled again.
"What?" he asked, appearing a moment later in the doorway, staring at me expectantly.
"Did you go shopping?"
His face twisted in a confused frown. "No?" he said like it was a question, eyes narrowing suspiciously. "Was I meant to?"
"Yes," I said in annoyance, slamming the fridge door shut and pointing to the piece of paper stuck to the front with a magnet. I gestured to it pointedly. "I showed you this yesterday and told you to go to the store."
He squinted at the ceiling, clearly trying to remember. "I have literally no recollection of that conversation ever taking place," he finally said, perfect brow furrowed at me.
I huffed, "I was craving pizza rolls, and now I have to go all the way to the store to get them."
He didn't dignify that with a response, merely rolling his eyes and turning back around to leave the room. My phone began chiming from where it was sitting in the corner on charge, and in the next second I had it in my hand. My brother's name blinked up at me from the screen, and I slid my finger across the glass.
"Yes?" I answered the call, turning to lean back against the counter. Damon paused in the doorway, cocking his head as he listened in on the conversation.
"I need you and Damon to meet Elena, Ric and I at the school," Stefan replied.
I thought about arguing, but decided we didn't have anything better to do anyway. "When?" I asked, pulling away from the device for a moment to check the time.
"How soon can you get here?"
I hesitated, glancing at Damon who fished his keys out of his pocket and jingled them at me pointedly. "Ten minutes," I told him, swiftly ending the call without waiting for a response. I unplugged my phone, shoving it into the pocket of my jeans and moving over to Damon's side.
"You should've asked what they wanted," he said as we made our way through the house, letting the front door click shut behind us, not bothering to lock it.
I snorted, "like we have anything better to do."
With Damon's driving we got to the school in just over five minutes, pulling into a parking space near the door and sliding out of his baby blue car.
"I still don't see how you forgot to go to the store," I grumbled, continuing our conversation. "This is just like that time in '86 when you forgot my birthday-"
"How many times do I have to apologise for that before you let it go?"
"At least another decade," I replied curtly, crossing my arms over my leather clad chest, my cool skin brushing the exposed stretch of stomach my midriff top bared.
"You know, there was that one time you didn't get me a Christmas present," Damon mentioned as he pulled open the door to the school, holding it open for me as an afterthought.
"That's completely different."
"How?"
"I did that on purpose."
His arm snapped out and he shoved me none too gently into the lockers to our right. I gasped, spinning around and darting over to him, making to shove him back only for him to disappear down the hallway towards Ric's classroom. I growled and raced after him. He'd slowed down once he'd rounded the corner, meaning I was able to catch him, jumping onto his back without hesitation and playfully wrestling him as he turned into the room.
We were both laughing when we noticed the people in the room staring at us. We paused, taking in their extremely glum faces. We silenced ourselves awkwardly, and I slid off Damon's back smoothly, the heels of my boots clacking against the linoleum floor.
"Damon, Cassie, thanks for coming," Ric greeted us in a flat voice.
"Sorry we're late guys," I said with a smirk, trying to defuse the tension in the room.
"Dog ate our... Never mind."
Everything was silent for a stretch as we watched them, Elena's eyes stuck on her shoes. "Is everything okay?" I asked cautiously, crossing my arms and stepping further into the room.
"What's with all the furrowed brows?" Damon asked; his way of showing concern.
"I saw Isobel last night."
There was a beat. "Isobel's here?" we asked together. "In town?"
"Just what we need," I muttered sarcastically, my nose crinkling in a frown.
"Did you ask about Uncle John? Are they working together?" Damon fired questions to Alaric. I moved to Elena's side, perching myself on a desk beside her, pulling my feet underneath me and wondering if I was meant to comfort her or something.
"No."
"No, they're not?"
"No, I didn't ask."
"What about the invention?"
"I didn't ask."
"Does she know about the tomb vampires?"
"I don't know."
"Did words completely escape you?" Damon exploded irately, and I exhaled sharply through my nose with barely concealed annoyance.
"I was a little distracted by my dead vampire wife to ask any questions," he countered strongly, a glare fixed on his features.
Fair enough.
"What did she want?" I asked lightly, knowing he at least had to know that. However it wasn't he who answered, but the softer voice of Elena from beside me.
"She wants to see me, Cassie."
The way she said it made it clear she was intending to do just that. Damon and I both turned to stare at her like she was insane.
"Alaric is supposed to arrange a meeting," Stefan spoke for the first time since we entered the room. "We don't know why or what she wants."
"Elena," I said and her head whipped towards me. I took her hand in what I hoped was a comforting way. I didn't have much experience in comforting people who weren't Damon, so it was really all guesswork from here on out. "You don't have to see her if you don't want to."
"I don't really have a choice," she replied quietly.
"She's threatening to go on a killing spree," Ric explained.
"Oh," I said dumbly, blinking at him blankly for a moment. "And?"
They all turned to stare at me with wide, disbelieving eyes. After a moment I realised what I had said that was so wrong. I pursed my lips awkwardly, clicking my tongue and averting my gaze to my nails like they were the most interesting thing in the world.
"I take it that's not okay with the rest of you?" Damon asked rhetorically, walking over to where I sat and leaning against the desk, a silent gesture of comfort.
"I wanna do it." I looked at Elena in surprise. What the hell did she think she was doing? "I wanna meet her," she explained surely. "If I don't I know I'll regret it."
"It's your decision," I sighed, looking up from my nails to stare at her in concern. "But be careful."
"I will."
Alaric, Damon and I all stood in the square opposite the Mystic Grill. I stared at the building, watching for any signs that something was amiss. Everything I knew about Isobel – which wasn't much – was telling me that if anything, she was unstable. That meant unpredictable.
"I don't like this," Damon hissed from where he was pacing in front of Ric and I.
"Neither do I," I put in with a frown, tilting my head as I watched the entrance for movement.
"Isobel made clear we're not to step foot inside," Ric repeated.
Damon scoffed like he'd been offended, pausing his pacing in front of us, "we're not gonna kill her in a crowded restaurant."
"You're not gonna kill her period," he snapped. I huffed and crossed my arms like a child who'd been denied a treat.
"She ruined your life."
"Yet you still wanna protect her?" I asked confusedly, crossing my arms and looking up at him with a baffled frown. "Humans are weird."
Damon hummed in agreement and resumed pacing.
"She's my wife," Ric said, causing both of us to stare at him dubiously. "Was. Was my wife. I looked for the woman I married but she wasn't there. Whoever that is is cold and detached."
"Yeah, she's given up her humanity," Damon told him, and I felt a familiar tug of longing. I hadn't let go of myself more than once, and coming back from that edge was the hardest thing I'd ever done. But while I was there I'd felt invincible. It was in my nature to crave it, that absence of emotion. But I knew that was a line I couldn't cross. If not for Damon and Stefan's sake, then for Elena and Caroline and maybe even Ric. I couldn't do that to them. I couldn't let them see me like that. I prayed they never would.
"Yeah, see I don't get that." We looked at him curiously, waiting for him to elaborate. "Stefan has his humanity. He's a good guy. Hell, you're a bitch, you're a dick and you both kill people. But I still see something human in you two. But with her there was nothing."
Damon glanced at me, and I inclined my head slightly, telling him I supported his decision to explain it. "You can turn it off," he blurted, eyes narrowing as he turned his gaze back to the Grill.
"It's kind of like a button you can press," I tried to describe, struggling to find the words for what I was trying to say. It was difficult to explain it, especially to somebody who hadn't ever experienced it. To somebody human.
"Stefan's different, he wants the whole human experience. He wants to feel every episode of 'How I met your Mother'," Damon told him, and I leant my weight against the tree behind me, my lips twitching in amusement at his explanation. "He shuts his feelings out. The problem is that as a vampire your instinct is not to feel."
I averted my gaze to my shoes, trying and failing not to think about the feelings within me, growing by the day. "That doesn't mean we don't, though," I added softly, idly kicking at a rock by my feet.
"Isobel chose the easy road. No guilt or shame," he spoke, drifting to my side like we were magnets. "No regret. I mean come on, if you could turn it off, wouldn't you?"
"You two haven't," he accused, and I forced my lips up into a smirk, scoffing at him and rolling my eyes dramatically.
"Of course we have Ric," I lied through my teeth, grinning at him wickedly.
"It's what makes us so absolutely awesome and fun to be around."
We walked a fine line, Damon and I. It was tough to balance the switch. We allowed ourselves to feel, but we didn't allow our feelings to get in the way of how we lived our lives. That's what set us apart from humans; we may feel guilt over murdering someone, but that doesn't stop us from doing it.
I slammed the door to Zach's old car, grumbling profanities under my breath about Damon. The asshole wouldn't let me use his car to do the groceries, muttering something about how he didn't want me to drive recklessly into a pole, so I'd been forced to dig out the keys to my late descendant's car, since it would have been stupid to use my bike. I shoved the keys into my pocket, glancing up at the cloudless sky before sighing and making my way towards the general store I usually did the shopping in.
I was almost at the automatic doors when there was a crack to my right, deep in the woods. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end and I froze, tilting my head towards the shadowed area, my keen eyes cutting through the darkness. There was nothing there, despite the thick feeling that I was being watched. I narrowed my eyes suspiciously, but kept walking.
Another crack echoed in the air around me, this time accompanied by the rustling of bushes. My hand twitched, wishing I had a dagger of some kind I could use to defend myself, though I didn't know what I was going to defend myself from. Either way, I could feel in my gut that I was in trouble.
With that in mind, I let my fangs drop into place, my eyes filling with blood, leaving them a gruesome black and red. I charged into the forest, prepared to take on whoever – or whatever – I had to.
There was nothing there.
I stared at the empty space in front of me, a frown on my lips.
Out of nowhere there was a sharp sting in my neck, along with an agonising ache in my veins that I'd come to associate with being injected with vervain. I groaned, strength flushing from me as I dropped to my knees, pressing a hand to the place I'd been stabbed with the needle. I looked around desperately, but all it did was make me dizzier. I blinked sluggishly, black spots appearing in my vision. "Help," I tried to yell, but it came out as more of a strained whimper. I held on for as long as I could, though eventually succumbed to unconsciousness as something hit me in the temple.
"You tell the little bitch to come get it herself." Damon snarled, pushing himself away from Isobel and stalking from the room.
"Damon!"
He paused in the doorway, something about the tone of her voice making him stop. "What now?" he asked, trying his hardest to sound bored.
"How's Cassie?"
That made him freeze. He didn't like the way she asked, and he definitely didn't like the smug smirk sitting on her lips.
"Why?" he asked suspiciously, crossing his arms and watching as she picked herself off the floor, straightening her clothes.
"Do you even know where she is?"
The last thing he was going to do was tell her he hadn't seen her in hours. Besides, he got the feeling she knew exactly where his Cassie was. "What did you do with her?" he asked furiously, hands balling into fists at his sides.
Her smirk deepened, and Damon's nose crinkled; it was not an attractive look on her. "Go home, Damon."
"Where is she?" he spat through clenched teeth, eyes turning a bloody shade of red.
"Not here," she responded curtly. "But if you ever want to see her again, you'll do as I've asked and give Elena the device."
He might have been significantly older than her, but there was still a chance things could go south for him very quickly if it came to a fight. He knew he'd be better off with Stefan as backup, and he wasn't willing to do anything that put his best friend at risk. He hissed at Isobel one final time before turning on his heel and disappearing out the door.
I came to consciousness slowly at first, blinking confusedly through the darkness, a humming ache vibrating through my body. That would be from the vervain, I realised. After a moment I noticed my hands were bound by chains to the roof. I jerked sharply, trying to pull them free when I heard a splashing sound.
I froze. Stone cold dread appeared in my gut, weighing me down with it's intensity. Immediately a sob bubbled from my lips, a choking sound following as I struggled to get air down my throat. I panicked, kicking my legs out desperately. My heels were still on, and they collided with a wall of some kind in front of me. I kicked at it, but I was severely weakened from the vervain, there was no way I was going to be able to break through it.
I screamed as loudly as I could, the sound echoing back around the small water-filled room I was in. Part of me was expecting Damon to come charging in to save me, but nothing happened and I kept screaming.
I let out another scream, flailing wildly as I tried to escape my watery prison. Suddenly a small hatch in front of me opened, sunlight pouring in and hurting my sensitive eyes. I sobbed hysterically, ignoring the jingle of my chains as I tugged at them futilely. Two faces appeared in the gap, and it took me a moment to place them.
Isobel and John.
"So it is true," Isobel said thoughtfully. "Cassandra Miller is afraid of a little water."
"Where am I?" I asked through my tears, shaking as the feeling of the water slid across my skin. In my mind I was back in 1864, sinking to the bottom of the lake.
"You're in a water tank," John informed me, something like pride in his voice. "We weren't sure how to keep you contained, but then I heard the rumours about your little fear. Seems like they weren't just rumours after all." I snarled furiously, surging forwards only to be held back by my bound hands. The metal cuffs were tugging at my skin, my wrists rubbed raw. I tugged at them again, gasping hysterically as they gave way an inch. "We thought this might happen," he said with a click of his tongue, pulling out a bottle from his pocket and uncorking it, tipping whatever it held into the water I was partially submerged in.
I opened my mouth to ask what the hell he was doing, but shut it seconds later. I probably wasn't going to get an answer anyway. It only took moments before I realised what it was, the searing pain on my skin was a dead give away. "Liquified vervain," I gasped, desperately pulling myself up with my bindings to escape the pain.
"Why?" I choked out angrily, stilling myself. The more I moved, the more it hurt.
"I need the device from Damon," Isobel explained tightly, leaning against the side of the tank and watching me with a triumphant smirk. "You're his weakness, Cassie. Surely you know that."
"What are you t-talking about, you psycho bitch?!" I yelled raucously. I could feel burns breaking out down my legs and across my torso, the skin melting off my bones from the poison of the vervain.
"Oh, I think you know," John replied. "Just sit tight. I'm sure Damon will meet our demands soon." The way he spoke was not comforting in the slightest. I hissed at him warningly, but I mustn't have looked very threatening, because he merely gave an ugly smirk and slammed the hatch shut, leaving me in painful darkness.
Damon never usually went long without speaking to Cassie. He knew, of course, that it was depressing and painfully codependent of them, but that was how it had been for over a century and he didn't have any plans to change that any time soon.
So when it'd been nearly an entire day and he hadn't heard a word from her, on top of Isobel's words, it was safe to say he was getting worried.
Stefan, Elena and Bonnie stepped into the room he was brooding in, pacing the floor with worry. "Have any of you seen Cassie?" he asked, trying to mask his worry, though they all saw right through him.
"No," Stefan responded with a frown as he approached his brother. "Why?"
"I think Isobel has her," he told them, gritting his teeth in anger. An older song started playing, the sound coming from Damon. He fished his phone from his back pocket, frowning down at the unfamiliar number displayed across the screen. "Speak of the devil."
"Hello Damon," Isobel greeted slyly, and he could hear the smirk in her voice.
"Where is she?" he asked again, his voice and body tense.
"Oh don't you worry, she's quite comfortable," she giggled to herself just as a shrill, agonised scream pierced the air.
Damon froze, red hot anger like he'd never known boiling within him. "What have you done with her?!" he asked with rage, clenching his phone so tightly the case cracked.
"That's none of your business."
"The hell it's not!"
"Well, if you ever want to see her again, then I suggest you give Elena the device." Another scream rang out from the speakers, this one so loud Bonnie and Elena heard it even without enhanced hearing, just before the dial tone sounded, Isobel having hung up.
"Oh my God," whispered Elena, tears filling her pretty brown eyes. Damon felt like he'd been punched in the gut, he struggled to get air into his lungs, his body not cooperating with him. With a cry of outrage he hurled it at the far wall, watching in satisfaction as it crashed against the stone, smashing into a hundred little pieces.
Without hesitation he dug into his other pocket, pulling out the small device. He looked down at it where it sat in his hands, staring at it like he expected it to start talking and solve all his problems.
With a final, defeated sigh he handed it to Elena, crossing his arms as soon as it was in her hands. "Damon?!" Elena protested confusedly, a line drawn between her brows.
"If it were anyone else," he began thickly, turning his head to stare into the dying embers of the fire to his left. "If it were anyone else I'd put up more of a fight." Everyone was silent as they watched him, unsure how to react to his words. "But it's Cassie."
"Don't worry, Bonnie is going to de-spell it. Everything will be okay," Elena told him reassuringly, handing it over to Bonnie, who quickly got to work de-spelling the device.
All Damon could think about was Cassie, and how much he needed her. He'd always known how much she'd meant to him, but losing her made him realise just how much he felt for her. For as long as he could remember it had always been Katherine. And despite that, Cassie stayed. She was there when Katherine wasn't. She was there on the good days, by his side on the worst. She never left, not once.
Isobel taking her? That was what clicked everything into place in his head. He didn't want Katherine, looking back he wasn't sure he ever did. It was Cassie, it was always Cassie. He'd do anything to get her back, and he'd never lose her again.
I took deep, calming breaths, trying to stop my panic from getting the better of me. Every now and then some glassy-eyed minion of Isobel's would crack open the door and tip another bottle of vervain into the water, adding to the poisonous flames licking at my submerged skin.
The hatch across from me cracked open, and instead of a face full of sunshine I got only the comforting glow of the moon. Isobel appeared in the space, but I barely had the strength to tilt my head up to meet her eyes. "Time to go," she said tonelessly, staring at my hanging form.
I wasn't sure what she planned to do with me, but I didn't want to stick around to find out.
I was still in searing pain, I was terrified and wanted to go home. The thought of home, of Damon, was enough to give me that extra surge of strength I needed to rip at the chains holding me up. I hadn't thought the move through, and as the chain supporting me gave way I crashed into the poisonous water. A scream tore from my throat, the sound dulled by the water and doing nothing but letting the vervain into my mouth. I was completely submerged; touching more water than I ever had in over a century. I forgot which way was up as I clawed at the water. The timelines in my head where blurring. It was 1864 all over again, and I was sinking to my death for a second time. This, if it was even possible, was worse. Last time I hadn't been a vampire in a pool of vervain. The poison burned every inch of my skin it came into contact with, practically melting it off the bone. By this point I was sure the liquid was more blood than water.
Finally, just as my lungs were about to give way a pair of hands grabbed me from under the arms, pulling me out of the burning water. The cool night air brushed against my wounded skin as I was tugged out of the tank and onto the grass. A sob racked through me as I collapsed in a heap, in too much pain to do anything else.
Two large men grabbed my arms, hauling me to my feet. I hung uselessly between them, no strength left in my body. I was unable to hold myself up, or even move my bleeding legs as they tugged me forwards. I wanted to fall unconscious, give myself over to that blissful nothingness. But I knew I had to stay awake, so no matter how hard it was, I stayed awake, though not exactly alert.
"No, I was going to kill him," Isobel cooed creepily, leering at her daughter.
Damon shifted his weight onto the balls of his feet, unable to hold himself back any longer. "Where's Cassie?" he exploded, hands clenched into tight fists at his sides. Isobel smirked knowingly.
"Right over there," she said, inclining her head to the side where two men approached, a dead looking Cassie in their arms. She had grotesque burns covering her visible skin, burns the brothers knew from experience were from vervain. Her clothes and hair were dripping wet, and she was too weak to pick her head up to look at them, let alone say anything. Damon growled deep in his chest, realising she'd been tortured both physically and mentally.
"Cassie," Elena breathed, blinking back tears as she stared at her friend. Damon felt physically ill, if he didn't know better he'd say he was about to be sick.
"Don't look for any redeeming qualities in me," Isobel warned them as they stared at the collapsed vampire, Stefan's jaw clenched shut in anger for what they did to his older sister. "I don't have any."
"But you took a risk with Damon," Elena persisted, pushing through her grief, focusing on the task at hand. There would be time to make sure Cassie was okay later. "How did you know that he was going to give it to me?"
"Because he's in love with Cassie."
He could argue. He could say that he and Cassie had known each other for eons, that what he felt for her was purely platonic. But what was the point?
He stared at her, watching as she weakly tugged at the hands holding her. For so long he'd been blinded by Katherine, by the idea of her, of setting her free of the tomb. He'd spent over a century with one person. One person who had stood by him come better or worse, one person who was always there to hold his hand when things got rough, one person who could make him smile even on his darkest day.
Why had he loved Katherine again?
Suddenly all he could see was Cassie. It was like he was really seeing her for the first time. He took in her long, dark, soaking wet hair, the soft curve of her neck as she bowed her head, the long slender hands with black nail polish at her fingertips.
He loved her.
He loved the way she chewed on the end of pencils, the way she ran a hand through her hair to keep it off her face, the way she was so impossibly graceful in high heels. He loved when she giggled to herself, ducking her head so nobody would see her smile. He loved her smirk, the way she got giddy when she got the chance to inflict pain and misery. He loved her wit and her passion and her loyalty and her beauty.
He loved everything the Cassandra Miller was. He'd always known this, of course. Now, however, the words had new meaning. She wasn't just his sister anymore, no longer was she only his best friend. He would never be able to look at her and not feel the burning of the sun in his chest. He wanted her, wholly and completely and for everything she was.
As much as he wanted to spill everything, just kiss her and let everything fall into place, he knew he couldn't. He knew her too well. When it came to the affairs of the heart, Cassie was skittish and easily frightened. One wrong move would send her running, and that was the last thing he wanted.
Damon didn't focus much on the rest of the conversation, instead focusing on Cassie and trying his hardest not to run over to her and rip her from the men's arms.
"Goodbye Elena," Isobel drawled, but Damon barely noticed the whole thing was over until the men holding Cassie dropped her suddenly. She slumped to the floor, unable to hold herself up. He was at her side in the blink of an eye, gathering her in his arms, watching with sinking dread as her head rolled back lifelessly.
"Cassie," he said, shaking her more roughly than he meant to in his panic. "Cassie."
Her long eyelashes fluttered against her cheeks for a moment before her eyes slid open, revealing those hazel green eyes he loved so very much. "Damon?" she asked hoarsely, not daring to believe what she was seeing.
"Yeah," he breathed, pulling her closer and burying his face in her dripping hair. "You're safe," he said, more for his own benefit than anybody else's. "You're safe."
She didn't cry; of course she didn't cry. She clenched her jaw and wound her hands around his jacket lapels, pulling herself closer to him. He tightened his grip on her to reassure them both. It wasn't the first time one of them had been kidnapped (hell, with the amount of people they pissed off on a monthly bases it was surprising that it didn't happen more often) and every time was just as traumatising as the last.
It was pathetic and definitely unhealthy, but one didn't know how to function without the other. They were like two sides of a same coin; they shared a bond that everyone could see plain as day would never be broken.
Elena rushed forwards, intent on enveloping her friend in her arms, but drew back in shock when Damon hissed at her, a warning to stay back. "Get her home and get her fed," Stefan commanded, and for once Damon didn't argue. They both knew, with Cassie being so weak, her self-control was virtually nonexistent. The eldest Salvatore brother scooped her up in his arms with practised ease, cradling her to his chest. He nodded at his brother and Elena cordially before vanishing, taking a barely conscious Cassie with him.
Damon reappeared in his room at the boardinghouse, coming to a stop beside his bed as he gently placed his exhausted best friend on top of his warm covers. He disappeared for a single second, reappearing the next moment by her side, two blood bags in his hand.
She barely had the strength to reach out for them, so he ripped the first one open and held the piping to her lips. She paused, clearly hesitating. "Drink," he told her softly, and without hesitation she sucked the blood through the piping, moaning quietly as it pooled in her mouth.
She drained the first one in record time, and by the time she was halfway through the second one, most of her burns and lacerations had healed and colour had returned to her pale cheeks. "You'll stay, won't you?" she asked once she was done, and he blinked in surprise, not having known she was alert enough to ask; although, she didn't have to. There was no way he was letting her out of his sight.
"Of course," he responded immediately, kicking off his shoes and sliding into bed beside her. His head felt light and his skin tingled where they touched, but he kept his face straight and breathing even. Now wasn't the time to let his feelings get in the way of what Cassie needed. She needed her best friend, the last thing he was going to do was try something at a time like this.
He suddenly wasn't sure where to put his hands. In the past it had been so easy between them, and now he didn't even know if he should touch her arm. Luckily, she solved his dilemma for him, rolling over to face him and wrapping her arms around his waist, burying her face in his chest. He sighed, rolling his eyes at himself for being such an idiot and letting his arms encase her gently, pulling her impossibly closer.
"What did they do to you?"
The words were said before he'd even noticed he'd opened his mouth. She hesitated, nuzzling further into him and taking a deep breath. "Water tank," she responded tightly into the fabric of his shirt. "Vervain." No other words were needed, and she knew it.
Rage boiled within Damon, licking at his insides and curdling sourly in his gut. Cassie felt him tense beneath her, felt his hands clench into fists where they lay on her waist. She pulled herself higher in his grasp, tilting her head up and placing her lips on his jaw. She held herself there, not breathing as she waited for him to calm down.
She pulled herself higher still, moving her hands to grasp at either side of his head, tugging gently at his hair as she pressed her forehead to his. "I'm alive," she told him reassuringly, her warm breath fanning across his lips. A small, tired smirk quirked at her ruby red lips. "Technically speaking."
Damon relaxed. There would be time to be furious later, he wasn't going to waste such precious time with his Cassie. She brushed her nose against his once before dropping herself back down and nuzzling her face into his neck. Damon was by no means complaining, and he pressed his lips to her crown, loving the feel of her beside him.
No more words were said, and they didn't fall asleep for a long time, merely soaking up each other's presence, reminding themselves that they were there. And that they always would be.
A/N: Hope you like this chapter. It's seriously different since I rewrote it, and I hope anyone re-reading likes the changes I've made – I certainly do. Leave a review and share your thoughts :)
-Sonny13
xx