Chapter 10
The doctor's wouldn't allow visitors that first night and I didn't answer my phone because I was so drowsy from all of the meds I was on for the pain. The next morning everyone filtered into my room one by one, Damon being the only one who wasn't there.
"So tell us your side of the story, because we only have Damon's and we didn't even get a full story from him. He wouldn't even come home last night he just called Stefan and told him what happened." Elena sat on the bed next to me.
I told them everything, except for the small talk with Damon. Of course I heard from everyone at least twice how stupid I was and how I should have invited Damon in. I knew that was coming.
Jeremy, in particular, was pretty angry at the entire situation.
"I cannot believe he just left you after that happened! I should have been there. You would have been safe with me. None of this would have happened. I'm gonna kill him when I see him."
"Well looks like you'll have your chance, little Gilbert. Here I am." Damon walked into the room.
Immediately Jeremy took a swing at Damon, which caused a scuffle in the room and ended up with Jeremy pinning Damon against the wall with a stake in his hand, ready to kill him. He really takes that hunter thing seriously, walking around with stakes and all.
"You guys, enough! You're going to get us kicked out of here and we'll never find out what the hell is really going on!" Caroline broke up the fight.
"Thank you." I replied. "Now...Damon, what happened? You vamped out and told me to leave, and then you take off and don't want to say much to anyone about what happened?"
"Listen I really would just rather forget that whole night." he replied.
"Damn it, Damon! We need some answers here, so either come out and say it or we'll deal with things the hard way." Stefan got in his face.
Damon finally relaxed his face and looked over at me.
"Fine. They managed to get into the house without anyone knowing, I guess they had their own little witch to do some voodoo on the house and themselves so they wouldn't be seen. Apparently we never thought of that scenario. They got in, she finally invited me in and I killed them."
"And?" Stefan goaded.
"And what? That was it!" Damon sat down on the chair in the corner of the room.
"Damon you vamped out once you saw her blood. What the hell man you're 168 years old, you couldn't control your blood lust and told her to get out and then took off!" Jeremy was getting loud again.
"Fine. While they were in the house they mentioned something about her blood..." he began.
"Yeah we know, they were working with it for a cure. Get on with it Damon." Stefan chimed in.
"No, that's not what I'm talking about. They said her blood wouldn't do anything about a cure. There's something different about her blood. Trust me, I can verify."
"What does that mean?" I asked, completely confused at the conversation that was happening.
"It must have something to do with not being able to be compelled...and whatever else I'm sure will pop up with you. Your blood is …...the smell of it is intoxicating I can't even describe it. I'm betting those guys got a taste from your dad's lab and couldn't help themselves and tracked them to their house and that's why they killed them."
"...you have got to be kidding me. Is this a joke?" I felt like I was saying that so often. But I mean honestly...he couldn't be serious!
"It's no joke. Look I'm sorry I freaked you out, but if you stayed there I'm not sure what I would have done. And I left because I couldn't figure out what the hell happened and needed some time to think."
"Jesus this is just perfect. First my parents are killed, now I find out I have ~special~ blood. Tell me again why I'm staying in this goddamn town? None of this shit would have happened had I not moved here!" my voice was rising.
"You're staying here because you have your friends. We're still your family, you know. We all still love you and want you here." Jeremy held my hand. The love word threw me for a loop for a minute, but I quickly realized he meant it in a friend way and nothing more.
"I have plenty of friends outside of Mystic Falls." I replied.
"Yeah well how many of them are here, now?" Caroline actually chimed in.
I was surprised by her response but she was right. None of my old friends had bothered much with me since i'd moved here, aside from a few phone calls after my parents died and the occasional email.
"Okay well now that that's settled, we have to figure out our next step here." Stefan said.
"Should she stay with all of us at the boarding house? We could watch her that way." Elena asked.
"There's enough rooms in there I think we could set one up for her." Caroline agreed.
A few more of them jumped on the plan of me moving into the boarding house without even asking me and finally I had heard enough.
"Listen, I'm not moving into the boarding house! I'm staying at my house!" I yelled over them.
"How else are we going to figure out how to keep you safe? You'd be best if you stayed with us! We could keep an eye on you!" Jeremy told me.
"Jesus you guys, she just said no! She's not a child, you can't force her to move if she doesn't want to." Damon shot out, surprising everyone.
"Damon, it's probably the best way. How else can we keep her safe?" Stefan turned to face Damon.
"We'll figure out another way! I think she needs some rest, we should all leave." Damon replied.
"Damon's right" Elena finally gave in "Vi we'll let you get some rest. They're letting you out tomorrow, who would you like to be here to pick you up?"
I thought about it for a few minutes. The only two people I knew wouldn't scold me were Matt and Damon. And I knew Matt was working tomorrow...ugh, of course.
"Damon." I replied, and everyone just stared in silence.
"Well you heard the woman. Let's all go and let her sleep." Damon walked out the door.
Everyone else came over and said their goodbyes and gave me a hug. Jeremy asked if I wanted him to stick around, and if maybe he could pick me up. I told him I was fine and Damon driving me home would give me more time to rest since we probably wouldn't be talking. I think he was nervous that Damon would try something again after the whole blood incident, but I really didn't care at this point.
After everyone left my mind was reeling. Was I even safe here in the hospital? I'd hoped that Mystic Falls Hospital security was halfway decent, but I knew I wasn't going to be able to sleep.
I buzzed the nurse and she quickly responded. I fibbed a bit, telling her that I was in pain again in hopes that she'd give me some more paid meds. She just smiled and handed over some pills and told me to try and get some rest. It didn't take long after taking the pills for me to fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.
I slept all night which felt great. I knew they were discharging me early so I got a head start on packing things while the nurses gave me all the paperwork and a script for more pain medicine in case I needed it. I thought it was kind of strange to give me pain meds for a cut on my arm...do they just hand this stuff out to everyone that comes in this place? But then I reminded myself I may have some trouble sleeping after this mess so it was best not to question it. I took all the paperwork and smiled at them.
"Well well well...already up and ready to get the hell out of this place, aren't we?" I turned around to see Damon standing in the doorway.
"You're early. I thought you weren't coming for at least another hour. Are you wearing the same clothes from last night?"
"Yeah well, the security around here is shit, so I stayed just to make sure none of those assholes would find you again."
Odd. Why was he being so nice? God I hope it has nothing to do with the blood thing. I wasn't about to become his personal blood bank.
"Uhh...thanks?" was all I could manage.
"No problem. Are you finished? We should get going. Bonnie's finishing up some more spells for the house and Matt pulled some strings with an uncle that works at this geeky computer store and was able to set up some better security around the house. Some cameras and stuff."
"Yeah I'm all packed." I replied "Cameras? Like inside my house? I don't think i'm comfortable with that."
"Don't worry, no one is going to see you walking around the house naked." he smirked "He set them up outside so we can see if anyone comes in or out that shouldn't be there.
"Lovely" I sighed "Let's go."
The car ride was fairly uneventful as I had hoped. No lectures about what happened the other night, no lectures on how I should have someone with me at all times to be safe. It was nice to just sit in silence. Although it did strike eerily similar to the car ride home from the last time Damon drove me home. From the party...when I found my parents. I quickly pushed that thought out of my head.
"Deja Vu?" he asked, practically reading my mind.
"Yeah a little. But i'd rather have you driving me home anyway." I told him.
"Because you want to get in my pants?" he joked.
"Because you're the only one who stood up for me and doesn't treat me like a child." I replied.
"Yeah well, the others mean well. They just think you're a fragile little human. And with that blood of yours they're even more afraid for you."
We pulled up to my house and Damon brought my bags in and set them in the living room.
"Thanks I appreciate it. I'm sure I'll be getting a drop in from someone soon enough. You don't have to stay."
"I'll stay If you want me to. I don't have anything better to do."
For some reason this was turning out to be really uncomfortable and I couldn't exactly pinpoint why. Again I went back to him the other night when he smelled my blood and looked like he wanted to kill me. I still wasn't one hundred percent ok with him being completely alone with me, especially in my house after that happened.
"No really, I'm fine. I'll just veg out on the couch and watch some Buffy reruns or something.
He chuckled at that "Ahh yes, the vampire slayer. Jeremy could learn a few things from her. Well, on that note, I'll take off. Enjoy the silence while it lasts. I'm betting you'll be getting a phone call in 10 minutes or so." he walked towards the door.
I smiled and replied "I'm betting more like five. Bye Damon." and shut the door behind him.
Turns out I was right, within 5 minutes Elena called and insisted on a "girls night" with Caroline and Bonnie. I initially wanted to turn down the offer, but it really would be nice to hang out with just the girls for once.
They showed up within 15 minutes and we ordered pizza and just hung out and talked. It was nice. It felt like we were almost normal people for a while. Talking about guys, food, classes, tv shows. I wished we had more times like these.
"So waaaaaaaaaaaaait a minute" I interrupted Caroline "you slept with Damon?"
"Ugh, yes. Not my finest moment. Besides I didn't know he was a vampire or that whole compulsion thing before it happened. Though he never did compel me to sleep with him. I was a willing participant...and I want to slap myself for it now!"
"But now you're with Tyler. From a vampire to a werewolf, geez! Okay okay...so I'm dying to ask. Who was better...the vampire, or the werewolf?" I couldn't believe I actually asked that question but I was just having a fun time with the girl talk.
Everyone laughed and Caroline turned beet red.
"Well...Tyler can be, intense. Damon just sort of...knew what buttons to push, if you know what I mean!"
We all cracked up, but Elena turned the conversation pretty quickly.
"Okay okay gross. Waaaaaaaaaaaay too much information Caroline!"
I was DYING to ask Elena 'So...who's the better one out of the Salvatore's?' but then again I swore myself to secrecy so I couldn't ask that out in the open.
"You know, Jeremy can be pretty great too." Bonnie started He does this thing with his..."
"OHMYGOD BONNIE I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR WHAT MY BROTHER DOES WITH ANY OF HIS PARTS THANK YOU!" Elena put her hands over Bonnie's mouth immediately.
Caroline and I cracked up laughing at the two of them.
"Oh my god we are all seriously messed up." I laughed. Although I wanted to pipe in and agree with Bonnie and say I knew exactly what she was about to say, but I kept that quiet too. All of these secrets, I hope they stayed with me and that I wouldn't accidentally spill the beans at some point. I really enjoyed the company of these girls. And tonight was so much fun. We all wound up passing out on the couches in the living room while watching tv.