Hello my lovelies :D Another chapter for you. Not sure how I feel about this one to be honest. Just to let you all know that I have a new story titled 'You can run, You can hide'. This one is Damon based for all you Damon fans so if you like this story, please take a look and review my new one. I would love you all for forever :) xxx

Curling up into the arms of her loving fiancé, Elena let out a sigh that caught Damon's attention and caused him to frown.

"What's wrong, Elena?"

Taking a breath, Elena shifted her weight and turned her body so she was now facing Damon.

"I need to talk to you about Charlotte."
"What is it?" Damon asked, instantly worried.

From the look on Elena's face, Damon could see that something was bothering his wife to be, and the fact that it concerned his sister made Damon worry even more.

"You're not going to like it."
"She's pregnant isn't she?! That bastard! I'll bloody kill him." Damon shouted; standing up from the couch and pacing the room furiously.
"No! Damon, she's not pregnant!"
"Thank fuck!" Damon sighed, relieved. He didn't think he could handle any more surprises from his only sister. "What is it then?"

Elena didn't know how to approach the subject. She knew that Charlotte would not be pleased if she knew she was discussing this with Damon but Elena saw the bigger picture. It wasn't just about whether Charlotte could say 'I love you' to Klaus, it whether she would be able to say it to anyone ever.

"Damon, has Charlotte ever said 'I love you'?"

Confused, Damon stared at Elena in a daze. He could not fathom why she would be asking him such a thing.

"Why would you ask me that?"
"Well, has she? Has she ever said it to anyone? To you, to Stefan?"

Damon thought back to his childhood. He remembered Charlotte following himself, Stefan, and Klaus around when she was young; begging them to play games with her. He also remembered how she would plod along after him and plead with him to tell her bed time stories until he eventually gave in, and how she would constantly tell all three boys that she loved them dearly. However, Damon could not remember a time when his sister had said those three words to anyone in the past decade or so.

His forehead creasing slightly with concern, Damon cursed himself for not realising sooner what had happened to Charlotte. Older than the girl by nine years, Damon could still recall the memories of his parents screaming at each other even before Charlotte was born; how Charlotte, he figured out when he was older, had been born not out of love like himself and Stefan, but as a means to patch up the deteriorating marriage between Mary and Giuseppe Salvatore. As he had aged and became cynical of love and relationships, Damon too, had stopped saying 'I love you' but he had failed to notice the same happening to Charlotte as she aged and was left without him once he moved out.

"Not in years." Damon admitted.
"That's what this morning was about. She won't say it to Klaus. She admits that she loves him but she won't say those specific words to him."

Damon still wasn't best pleased about Charlotte and Klaus being a couples but after seeing them together over the past month and after spending time with Klaus during the day, in which it became extremely obvious to Damon that Klaus did indeed love his sister very much, he began to soften towards the idea of them being in a relationship; he knew Klaus would never do anything to hurt Charlotte intentionally. As a matter of fact, Damon suspected his sister would be the one to hurt Klaus.

"Fuck!"
"Damon?" Elena asked with worry in her voice as she watched his punch the wall above the fireplace.
"This is my fault. Our parents marriage… it was a complete train wreck. Charlotte… she was their way of trying to fix it."
"What? That's horrendous!"
"I know! Haven't you ever wondered about the age-gap? It's no wonder Charlotte's just as fucked up as me. Imagine growing up knowing you were only born to save your parent's marriage. I swore I wouldn't let anything happen to her; that I wouldn't let our messed up parents affect her."

Getting up from the sofa, Elena walked over to Damon and cupped his face in her hands. From the look in his eyes, she could see how pained Damon was by his realization.

"This isn't your fault. Charlotte just needs to realise that love isn't something to be scared of. It took you some time, Damon, but you got there in the end. Klaus won't leave her."
"She might leave him though. He'll scare her away and then she'll never go back to him."

It shocked Elena how suddenly Damon had gone from completely hating the idea of Klaus and Charlotte being together, to being concerned that Charlotte may leave Klaus. Feeling her heart swell with love for the man she held before her, Elena kissed him lightly on the lips.

"I need to talk to Charlotte."
"Not yet, Damon. She'll be upset with me. Just give her a bit a more time. I might be wrong about this whole thing."
"Fine." Damon replied; his gut instinct telling him that Elena was not wrong and he would have to find a way to convince his sister to listen to him.

Bright sunlight shone through the bay window in Klaus's bedroom and it filtered down onto the black, satin bed sheets Klaus and Charlotte were tangled in. Over a week had passed since the day of the dress fittings and Klaus had tried in vain to get Charlotte to admit to loving him. He knew, of course, that she did love him but it bothered him that whenever he said 'I love you', she was not able to say it back. At first he had put it down to her being younger than him, but she had openly admitted to Damon, in front of him, that she loved him. So, why could she not say the three words Klaus so desperately wanted to hear from her?

Hearing Charlotte groan beside him, Klaus snapped open his eyes and turned his head so he could see her. Dressed in the navy blue bed shirt that matched the pants he was currently wearing, Klaus gazed longingly at Charlotte. He was glad that it was a Sunday morning and neither of them had anywhere to be. He didn't want to be disturbed. He wanted to lie there with his girlfriend and enjoy the lazy day ahead that awaited them.

"Klaus?" Charlotte asked to an empty room.

Her boyfriend was no longer sleeping next to her and she had no idea what time it was. Leaving the bed and whimpering a little as cold air hit her bare legs like icy water, Charlotte hugged Klaus's shirt closer to her body and left the bedroom to go in search for him.

Hearing the sound of water running, Charlotte wandered down the hallway until she reached the bathroom; a marvellous specimen of cream marble tiles covering the walls and ceiling, with a white, porcelain toilet, sink, and matching bathtub that looked big enough to easily hold two people. In the corner of the room, Charlotte could see Klaus stood in the glass shower; the material allowing her to see his naked body as the water from the shower poured down over him.

Greatly appreciating the view, Charlotte couldn't help but grin widely. God, how she loved everything about that man. The fact that she had known him her entire life; that he had been a constant fixture, made her love him even more. She was more than aware that her reluctance to tell Klaus she loved him was causing the man in question some distress, but she couldn't understand why he needed her to say it when he already knew it. In her experience, it didn't matter whether you said 'I love you' or not. They were just words. It was how you treated someone that showed whether or not you loved them.

Closing the door quietly behind her, Charlotte made her way back down the hall and to the kitchen; preparing a pot of coffee for when Klaus finally left the shower and came in search of her, which she knew he would do.