Chapter 22

Damon was officially frightened. It had been over 24 hours since Stefan had brought Ottilie back to the mansion, and she was yet to say a single word to them. They'd done everything they could to keep her calm and safe, save of compelling her, which Damon refused to even consider, but still the little girl remained motionless and speechless in her room. They'd sit with her, one at a time, holding her hand and whispering soothing words to her, promising that they'd never hurt her and that she'd be safe with them, but she just stared up at them from her position in her bed, with big, scared eyes.

The following evening, Damon went upstairs to Ottilie's room to take her something to eat, her previous plates remaining untouched. He was scared for her, knowing that already being so tiny, she could not afford to miss meals. His fears doubled, however, when, opening Ottilie's bedroom door, he found her a shivering, quaking mess, bundled up in her bed covers. He set the food down and ran over to her, taking her face in his hand and frowning at the heat radiating off it. He felt her forehead, trying to gauge whether she had a fever, and found it to be coated in a cold sweat.

Calling for Stefan, he quickly pulled the covers from her, apologising as she shivered uncontrollably, feebly attempting to hold onto them. "I'm sorry, sweetheart, but we've got to cool you down," he spoke softly, still mindful not to scare her.

Stefan arrived in Ottilie's room, and taking one look at her, went to get his old, long forgotten medical bag. Returning with it in his hands, he set it next to Ottilie's bed. "Never thought I'd be using this," he joked, trying to lighten the atmosphere, and taking out a little glass thermometer, popping it gently into Ottilie's mouth. He instructed her to keep it there whilst he checked her pulse.

Taking the thermometer back from Ottilie, he frowned as he read the result. "She's burning up, Damon. We need to lower her temperature. Can you get me some very cold, wet towels?" His brother sped off, and Stefan gently moved some of Ottilie's hair from her clammy forehead. "Don't' worry, Otti. We'll take care of you and make you feel better soon, okay." She didn't reply, but seemed to stare straight through him, and Stefan just hoped that she wasn't starting to hallucinate as a result of her high fever.

Damon returned and together, they gently wrapped the little girl's limbs and torso in the cold towel, being extra careful around her bandaged ribs, and grimacing as she pulled away from them, whimpering at the cold that was almost painful against her burning skin. "I'll give her something to try and bring her temperature down," said Stefan, "and then she'll just have to sleep this off. We'll keep an eye on her, of course. If it goes too high, she'll need to go to hospital. I wonder whether she's just caught a chill from being out in the rain yesterday?"

Damon nodded, remembering back to a time in his youth when a simple chill could kill off the unlucky victim, but knew that with modern medicine and knowledge, Ottilie would be absolutely fine. He sat with her all night, replacing the towels with new, colder ones when her burning skin warmed them into ineffectiveness, and holding her hands as she tossed and turned in her sleep.

The next morning, Damon was snoozing in a chair next to Ottilie's bed, and was awoken by a tiny voice whispering, "Damon?" His eyes shot open and he saw Otttilie, still grasping his hands, staring at him, her eyes standing out in her pale, tired face.

"Otti," he leaned in closer to her, and kissed her hand gently, "how are you feeling sweetheart?"

She smiled faintly at him, and replied, "I'm feeling a lot better thank you."

He pressed his hand to her forehead and breathed a sigh of relief, finding it cooler to the touch than it had been. "Otti," he said, softly. "Stefan and I need to talk to you about what happened yesterday, and about some stuff that we've been keeping from you and why. But firstly, I need you to know, I promise that you will never, ever come in harms' way from Stefan or I. You're our family and we love you very, very much. No matter what, we would and will do anything to protect you. Please believe me."

Ottilie looked at him whilst he spoke, and seeing the aura around him pulsate with trustworthiness and love, clasped his hand a little tighter in hers. "I know, Damon," she said, quietly, earning a surprised look from Damon. "I thought about it whilst you were sleeping. I'm sorry for running away. It was stupid of me. I know that you and Stefan won't hurt me – I'm ashamed that I was scared of you, I'm so sorry."

She looked like she was about to cry, and Damon scooped her up out of bed to sit her on his knee, rocking her backwards and forwards, gently. "You had every right to be scared of us, Ottilie. We've been keeping secrets from you, and that's not right. But I promise you, we kept them only with the intention of trying to reduce your stress. What with finding out you're a witch, you didn't need all the extra hassle of finding out about us."

The little girl stared seriously at him. "You're a vampire, aren't you? And so is Stefan?" He just nodded. "Like the ones from my stories, but nicer?" Again he nodded, chuckling this time.

"Don't get me wrong, little lady. We are nice enough now, but we haven't always been the charming gentlemen that you see in front of you." He teased her, whilst trying gently to tell her that both he and Stefan had changed for the better.

"Are there any other vampires here?" she asked, choosing not to press on Damon's previous statement.

Damon gulped, nervous now to tell his little girl about the supernatural beings he called his friends. "Yes Otti, there are quite a lot. But they are like me and Stefan – good vampires."

"Who?" came the reply. Damon's time was up.

"Well Elijah, Rebekkah and Kol are very special vampires – they were the first ever vampires. Caroline is also a vampire, but quite a new one."

She nodded, digesting this information before asking, "What about Klaus?"

Damon grimaced, here we go, he thought. "Klaus is what we call a hybrid. He is both one of the original vampires, and a werewolf."

"Werewolf?!" she gasped, "Like the one I saw in his garden? That wasn't him, was it?"

Damon shook his head, "no Otti, it wasn't him, but he was able to get rid of it because he is a werewolf himself. A werewolf's bite is deadly to normal vampires like me." The little girl held him a bit tighter at that statement, and buried her head into his chest.

"Who else?" she asked, her voice muffled by his shirt.

"Well Tyler is also a werewolf, Bonnie's a witch, as you know, and Alaric and Jeremy are hunters – someone whose mission it is to kill vampires. But they don't kill their friends." He added, hastily.

"What about Elena?" she asked, quietly.

"She's human," he answered, shortly. His patience with Elena was wearing thin at the moment, and the mere mention of her name irked him.

The little girl merely nodded before swivelling on her spot on his knee, placing a tiny hand on each of his shoulders, and saying so seriously that he might have laughed, had the following sentence not come out of her mouth. "I don't care what you are, Damon. You saved me, and you care for me, and I love you."

Damon was lost for words for a second, before regaining his composure and pulling her closer to him. "I love you too, little otter" he whispered into her ear, happiness and adoration running through him in waves, only to be interrupted by the sound of her stomach rumbling. "You must be starving, little lady" he teased. "You haven't eaten in a couple of days. We're going to have to change that, can't have you wasting away again!"

He lifted her easily into his arms, still being delicate around her injuries, and raced with her down the stairs, the small girl giggling uncontrollably. "Let's see what Uncle Stefan's made us for breakfast" he joked.

"Uncle Stefan," came his brother's voice, "has been slaving away over the stove to make you your favourite pancakes." Ottilie giggled again and ran over to Stefan, hugging him tightly around his waist.

"I love you, Uncle Stefan," she whispered quietly to him.