Chapter 15

They didn't discuss what had happened with Stefan and Ottilie again, preferring to avoid any question about vervain. A week later, there was a Christmas procession through the Mystic Falls, and the brothers had promised to take Ottilie.

"Is it time to go yet, Stefan?' Ottilie asked for the third time. Elena looked at her, about ready to snap, but Stefan answered before she could. "Yes, Ottilie, let's go. Have you got your scarf?" The four of them left for the town centre. It was cold and dark, but Ottilie was excited. Suddenly, she felt a pang of distress, and she stopped walking, clutching her chest as she felt a pain there. The brothers stopped too, looking at her in concern. "Otti?" asked Damon, "what's wrong?" She looked up at them, the pain now gone but the unnerving feeling still remaining. "I'm not sure, I just suddenly had this feeling like something bad was going to happen, then my chest hurt." The brothers exchanged concerned looks and Damon knelt in front of her, taking her wrist to check her pulse, fearing that something was wrong with her heart.

Elena rolled her eyes. "Talk about being dramatic…" she said, but not quietly enough. Damon's eyes narrowed as she glared at her. "what is wrong with you?" he accused, "you're supposed to be nice, caring Elena!" She turned away from him, and carried on walking towards town. "Do you want to go back, Otti?" asked Stefan. She shook her head, and taking each of their hands, followed behind Elena.

The town was packed and they soon found Caroline, Bonnie and Matt. "Are the Mikaelsons joining us?" asked Caroline. Damon shook his head.

"no, it's not their thing."

They spent the evening watching the procession. It was impressive, and Damon laughed to himself at the look of awe on Ottilie's little face. Towards the end, Caroline announced that she, Bonnie and Matt were going to head home as they had a project due in the morning that they still had to work on. They said goodbye and Damon offered to go and buy some hot drinks for Stefan, Elena and Ottilie. He left to do so, and the other three carried on watching the parade.

Suddenly, there was a high pitched noise broadcast over the speakers. People covered their ears in discomfort. Shouts began to filter through the noise. "There's one! Grab him and take him to Lockwood cellar!"

Ottilie looked around, trying to work out where it had come from, before hearing a scream. She whirled her head around, realising that the scream had come from Elena. She was bending over Stefan who was seemingly unconscious on the floor. "oh no, Stefan!" she cried, running over to them. Elena was trying to wake him up to no avail. Ottilie, remembering the events of the other night took his hands and held them tightly. She shut her eyes and focused. A sudden sharp pain in her head told her that it was working, and she opened her eyes slightly to see Stefan starting to come round, groaning. Elena was looking at her, gobsmacked. "Elena," she managed to whisper with a huge effort. "You need to take him home, it's not safe here for him." She didn't know how she knew, but Elena didn't question her, pulling a protesting Stefan to his feet. "No," he mumbled, as she pulled him away, "Otti, no…" She let go of his hands, and dropped to the floor. The last thing she saw was Elena pulling a weakened Stefan away from her.

The men were trawling the streets, looking for those who had been affected by the noise. "Here's another!" shouted a man, standing over Ottilie. His companion followed him and gasped. "She's just a kid, how can she be a vampire?" The first man shrugged.

"It's not our job to question, just to gather them all. I've got her. You keep looking." He picked Ottilie up easily, and carried her to the Lockwood mansion, taking her down the stairs into the cellar where he dropped her carelessly onto the ground.

"That's the last of them," came the call from upstairs. "You can light it up now." He struck a match, and dropped it into the cellar.

Ottilie stirred, wondering why she was on the floor, and why her head hurt so much. She put her hand to her face, feeling blood coming from her nose. It came back to her then; she'd managed to help Stefan. She sat up, suddenly noticing the immense heat around her. Fire. She looked around, starting to panic. To her horror, she saw a familiar figure stretched out on the floor. "Damon?" she called, before beginning to crawl over to him, her body screaming in protest after having been dropped on the stone floor. She managed to get to him, and took hold of his hands, willing him to wake up. She felt the now familiar pain in her head, and fell forwards, onto Damon's chest.

Damon's eyes shot open. He looked down at the light pressure on his chest and saw Ottilie's curls splayed over it. "Ottilie," he gasped, before looking around him, taking in the horror of the scene around him. They were trapped in a basement, surrounded by screaming vampires. He lifted Ottilie's head from his chest and saw that her eyes were closed and her nose was bleeding. He wiped it away with a tissue he found in his pocket, and laid her gently down on the ground. He needed to find a way out.

The smoke was starting to build up, and the ceiling looked like it would collapse at any moment. He saw a large beam begin to shift and threw himself over Ottilie as it fell towards her. He managed to stop her being hit by it, but frowned as he noticed just how much smoke was in the air. This wasn't good for a human to breathe in. Crouching down to cradle her head, he noticed that over the roaring of the inferno, he couldn't hear whether her heart was beating. He lifted her chest to is ear, and was worried to hear her heart hammering away erratically. He lifted her head to check her breathing, and realised in horror that she was gasping for air, breathing in only smoke. Suddenly, the gasping stopped and her chest was still.

He was panicking now, and was pretty sure that had he been alive, he'd be having a heart attack of his own round about now. He laid his daughter gently flat on the ground, tilted her head back, pinched her nose and taking a gulp of air, blew it into her lungs. He watched her chest rise and fall, and repeated the action, willing it to keep her alive. "Come on, Otti," he urged, still breathing for her. To his relief, her heart was still beating, but he knew he had to get her out quickly.

He picked her up, holding her body with one arm, and pinching her nose with his free hand. He continued giving her breaths whilst he scrambled up the disintegrating stairs, hissing in pain as the flames licked his skin.

Stefan and Elena were watching the fire from outside, watching in horror. "Where did Ottilie go?" Stefan asked Elena, urgently.

"I don't know, she just told me to get you away so I did, and I saw collapse." Stefan rounded on her. "You left her?!" he almost shouted. Elena put her hands on her hips.

"I just did what she told me too!" Stefan ran his hands through his hair in desperation.

"She's just a kid, Elena, you should have taken her, not me!" Elena shook her head, vehemently. "No Stefan, it'll always be you." She replied.

Just then, Stefan heard something that made his blood run cold. He could hear. Damon. Muttering "…Otti, no, please, stay with me. Come on!" He looked towards the burning building.

"Oh my God," he murmured, "Damon and Ottilie are in there". Without any hesitation, he ran towards the Lockwood mansion. "DAMON!" he yelled, "WHERE ARE YOU?" He ran into the building and found Damon struggling, clutching Ottilie to him, trying to give her mouth to mouth. Damon looked up and saw Stefan. "She's not breathing, Stefan," he sobbed. He was exhausted still from the effects of the high pitched sound and the emotional turmoil of holding his not-breathing daughter in his arms. "Help me, please…" he begged.

Stefan took Ottilie from him and ran from the building. Damon staggered behind him, just making it out before a huge explosion ripped through the building. Stefan set Ottilie on the ground and checked her for any response. Finding her slowing heartbeat but no signs of breathing, he began giving her rescue breaths, pushing air into her lungs. "Come on, Otti," he murmured between breaths. "You can do this, just breathe," Damon collapsed next to them, his hair and skin singed. He managed to grab one of Ottilie's hands and held on to it desperately. "Elena," shouted Stefan. "Call and ambulance," She didn't seem to react. "NOW!" he yelled. She grabbed her phone and made the call, and within minutes, and ambulance was on the scene.

"What's going on?" asked a paramedic, as he knelt next to Ottilie. Stefan was still breathing for her. "She was in that building. I think she's breathed in too much smoke. She's not been breathing on her own for about 7 minutes." The medic nodded grimly and started shouting instructions to his colleagues. They put a mask over her face and started breathing for her, and Stefan sat back, exhausted. He crawled over to his brother to check on him. His face was covered in soot, only clear where tears had rolled down his cheeks. "She'll be okay, brother," soothed Stefan, holding his brother close.

The paramedics loaded Ottilie into an ambulance and they sped off to the hospital. Stefan hauled Damon to his feet. "I'm going to call Klaus or Elijah to take us to the hospital. Neither of us are fit to drive." Damon just nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

Both Klaus and Elijah arrived in record time. Without a word, they helped Damon into the back of the car. Stefan sat next to him, a comforting hand on his arm all the way to the hospital. As soon as they pulled up outside, Damon and Stefan leapt out, and the Mikaelson brothers promised to follow soon. Stefan compelled the man at the front desk to tell them where Ottilie was, and they set off to find her, knowing that Klaus and Elijah would probably do the same. They arrived where the man said Ottilie would be, and asked again for information. A nurse lead them to a cubicle where they saw Ottilie lying in bed, once again covered in wires. She had an oxygen mask on, but the brothers were relieved to see that she was breathing on her own again. "She inhaled a lot of smoke," said the nurse. "and she's obtained some minor burns, but really, she's very lucky to have made it out alive." He looked at Damon who was still covered in soot. "Did you pull her out?" he asked. "Do you need any medical treatment?" Damon shook his head, knowing that he was already healed. "No, thank you. I am unharmed." The nurse nodded, and left them to it.

A few minutes later, Klaus and Elijah burst into the small cubicle. "This is cosy," remarked Klaus. Elijah looked at Stefan.

"What happened?" he asked.

"We were at the procession when we heard a loud noise over the speakers. I think it was designed to reveal vampires as it knocked me out." Damon nodded,

"me too." He said.

Stefan continued. "Ottilie grabbed my hands and suddenly, I started waking up, and Elena dragged me away. Otti must have collapsed and been collected by someone thinking she was a vampire. They took her into the Lockwood mansion." Damon continued the story.

"I think she woke me up too, and then I found her collapsed on me, and the smoke got so thick, I had to try and find a way out. When I came back to her, she wasn't breathing so I got her out and now she's here." Elijah raised an eyebrow at them both.

"When you say she woke you up, what do you mean?" he queried. The brothers exchanged looks. "I think she might have healing powers," said Stefan, slowly. "The other day, I accidently poured vervain infused water over my hands, and when she held them, she seemed to channel the pain away and heal them." Klaus looked surprised.

"Well, that's certainly interesting," he remarked. "but what strikes me is that in less than one week, there has been two moves on vampires – vervained water, and now this attack tonight. Somebody doesn't want us here…"