Chapter 20
For the rest of the week, Elena hung around the mansion, making Stefan pretty happy, Damon irritated, and Ottilie nervous. The little girl kept to herself, making sure to keep out of Elena's way and avoid any possibility of being verbally attacked by her again. Damon kept a close eye on the situation, hating that it was negatively affecting Ottilie, but knowing also that Elena made Stefan happy. It was a fine line to balance, and for once in his life, Damon found himself being the keeper of the peace – not a role he was overly familiar with, nor happy to have.
The major fall out happened a few days after the incident in the kitchen, and it unfolded exactly as the instigator, Elena, had hoped.
When Damon and Stefan had gone to collect Ottilie from school that Friday afternoon, Elena put her plan into action, aiming to plant the seeds of doubt into Ottilie's mind. Heading to the fridge where she knew Damon kept his blood supply, she took out a bag, emptied half of it down the sink, making sure to wash all trace of the wasted blood away, and headed upstairs to Ottilie's bedroom, remembering that both Stefan and Damon had been in there during that day. Opening the bedroom door, she pushed a straw into the bag, and set it onto Ottilie's desk, knowing that she would see it as soon as she entered her room. Elena smiled to herself. They'll have to tell her everything now, she thought. Checking the time, she saw that the Salvatores would be returning pretty soon, so she grabbed her stuff and headed home.
Ottilie bounded in through the front door, still excitedly telling the brothers about her day at school before informing them that she was going to head up to her room to get her homework done. Damon and Stefan left her too it, heading to the kitchen to grab something to drink. Damon headed straight to the fridge containing his blood bag stash and frowned when he opened the door.
"Stefan," he called, "Are you off bambi again?"
Stefan arrived into the room looking confusedly at his older brother, who was still examining the contents of the fridge.
"What do you mean, brother?" he asked.
"I'm missing a blood bag," said Damon. "I know I had six left this morning, as I counted them to work out when I next need to get some more. Now there are only five, and I don't think Ottilie has a taste for it…" He stared accusingly at his brother, who shook his head vehemently.
"Absolutely not, Damon. You know I'm not drinking human blood."
"Then what's happened to it?" questioned Damon, before both brothers heard a panicked cry coming from the stairs. Quickly shutting and locking the fridge, Damon ran towards the stairs, followed closely by Stefan.
They found a trembling Ottilie sat halfway down the stairs, her arms wrapped around her knees, and her face ghostly white.
Damon knelt on the stair underneath her and took a gentle hold of her arms, looking carefully at her for any sign of injury. "What's wrong, little lady?" he asked, worried by her demeanour.
Still trembling, Ottilie looked up the stairs towards her bedroom door. "There's a bag of red stuff in my room. I think it might be blood but it has a straw in it. I don't understand…"
She broke off as Stefan and Damon ran past her, up the stairs into her room, finding the missing blood bag perched on her desk, complete with missing blood and a straw. Damon scowled, trying to work out what on earth was going on. Turning to Stefan, he noticed the familiar veins, so similar to his own, starting to sneak around his brother's eyes.
Suddenly, Ottilie appeared in the doorway, gazing from brother to the other. "Stefan, your eyes!" she gasped in shock.
Stefan quickly brushed passed her, heading back down the stairs and out of the front door, leaving Damon with a confused and concerned Ottilie.
"Damon, what's wrong with Stefan? Why is that bag in my room?" She had tears forming in her eyes, and Damon noticed that her heartrate was starting to pick up as she started to panic.
He knelt in front of her and took her hands in his. "Ottilie, look at me," he said, firmly but gently. "I want you to take some nice, deep breaths for me please. We need to keep your heart steady, okay?" She nodded, and followed his directions, breathing in and out, slowly, matching his exaggerated demonstrations.
When Damon heard her heartrate start to normalise, he smiled gently at her and ruffled her hair. "Good girl," he said. "As for that, I think it's someone's idea of a practical joke. Maybe one of our friends thought this was my room, not yours, and wanted to play a trick on me."
Ottilie stared around the room, decorated with pictures of animals and other, more childish, pieces, and knew that nobody could mistake this room for Damon's.
Deciding not to press it, she asked Damon about Stefan's eyes, and he looked at her, confused. "You saw what?" he chuckled at her. "I think it was either a trick of the light, or your mind playing tricks on you! Stefan is just a bit squeamish and can't stand being around anything resembling blood." He almost laughed at the irony of his statement, but managed to keep his face looking as trustworthy as he could muster.
Ottilie didn't look convinced, but stayed quiet, watching as Damon took the blood bag from her room and left her to do her homework in peace. She didn't see Stefan until much later that evening, after she'd had her dinner and was about to go to bed