Chapter 6

Channeling Father

Despite the pain of not being able to see Elena, Stefan felt lighter in his heart, because finally, he and Damon truly seemed to be like brothers again. They did things they hadn't done since they were human, tossing around a football, talking about whatever came to mind, reading quietly with each other, and many other past times.

Damon seemed determined to cheer Stefan up. Taking him places, doing his best to distract him, all the while claiming he was trying to come up with a plan. After three days however, Stefan slipped away to talk to Bonnie, who claimed she was practicing and looking for more spells, but was still no where near strong enough to take on Katherine yet.

He even tried to talk to Caroline about it, but she'd only stared at him like he was insane. "Are you nuts?" She had shrieked, and slammed the door in his face. Caroline was so terrified of Katherine there was no way she was going to be any help.

After a week, a desperate Stefan started sneaking out at night to watch Elena as she slept through her window. It was better than nothing.

Stefan watched over Elena for four nights, but on the fifth, just as he was about to jump up to her window, he heard a sound and quickly turned around to see Damon who had been right behind him. A very angry looking Damon.

"What are you doing here Stefan?" His voice, didn't sound like it usually did. It was angry, but stern, and calm at the same time. It reminded him of something, something he should remember, but... "Answer me!"

Stefan jumped and stammered. "I... I was just..."

Damon suddenly grabbed his shoulder and gave it a hard shake. "Home, now." Stefan fled.

He didn't know why, but Damon was scaring him right now. As soon as he dashed inside the house, Damon walked in and closed the door quietly behind him. "D-Damon..."

"What were you thinking?" Damon crossed his arms and stared him directly in the eyes.

Stefan's own eyes grew wide. "I had to see her. I just had to."

"So you risk Katherine spotting you, through her eyes or someone else's, because you just had to see her?" Stefan flinched. "You risked bringing more harm to her or her family because you had to see her?"

Stefan bit his lip. "I was careful. I made sure-"

"You didn't know I was there, and you know Katherine has more stealth than either of us." Stefan looked at the floor guiltily and Damon immediately snapped at him. "Look at me when I'm talking to you boy!" Stefan's eyes shot back to his face with a slight gasp. That tone... the way of speaking... calling him boy... now he remembered... now he knew...

Damon was channeling their father, as he'd done only once before.

His mind shot back to long ago, only two or three years before Katherine had come into their lives. Their father had gone out of town for awhile, leaving Damon in charge of the household, since he was the oldest, and it was one of the few times in his life that Stefan had done something incredibly stupid.

He had been eyeing a beautiful horse that his father was planning on selling for a high price, but it hadn't been broken yet, and his father had specifically told him to leave it alone, because he wasn't experienced enough to handle a horse that high strung yet, but with their father gone, the temptation had been too much to resist, and late one night, he snuck out to it.

He had managed to saddle it and everything all right, and stay on it's back for all of five seconds before he was tossed off onto the ground. If Damon hadn't showed up right then, he might have been trampled by the angry animal, and as it was he came awfully close.

He had never seen his brother so furious. He'd gotten servants to take care of the beast while he dragged him back home then gave him the tongue lashing of a life time. Telling him how stupid and dangerous what he'd done had been. It had left him in tears and begging for forgiveness. Damon had threatened to take a strap to Stefan himself if he ever did something like that again, and Stefan had believed him. Father had never found out about what he'd done, and Damon had never told him.

Looking into Damon's eyes, he saw that he was wearing the exact same expression now, as he had then. Damon wasn't in brother mode, no, this was Damon the disciplinarian, and Stefan knew he was in deep crap.

"You let your emotions get away with you. Did you think I haven't been keeping an eye on Elena for you? Who's the one who's been taking your notes to each other back and forth? I know you're impatient, but until we figure out a good plan, one that has a high level of getting through all this alive, we stay low. Is that understood?"

Stefan gulped and whispered his answer. "Yes Sir."

"You are to stay away from Elena until then. Get upstairs."

Stefan ran up to his room, shutting his door before throwing himself on the bed and burying his face into his pillow.

Damon got out the strongest alcohol they had in the house. When he heard the sound of his brother's muffled sobs start up, he ditched the glass and drank straight from the bottle.

Treating his brother like that had been sheer hell. He knew however, that it would snap Stefan to attention, it always had when his father had done it, until that tone and those kind of words had an automatic effect on him.

He hated having to do it.

But he hated the thought of losing Elena due to Stefan's carelessness even more. He wanted to go up and comfort his brother, but he held himself back. He wanted to make sure he learned the lesson. Growing up, Damon was the one who usually got the strap. A few harsh words from Father was usually all it took to bring Stefan back into line. Stefan never could handle guilt very well, and usually did his best to avoid it.

For something like this, Father probably would have used the strap on Stefan as too, but Damon couldn't bring himself to do that to his brother. He couldn't even threaten him with it. Not now, not when he was already hurting so much inside.

When Damon checked on Stefan later that night, he found him in bed with closed eyes, a few tears on his cheeks, and it was obvious that he'd cried himself to sleep. Damon gently brushed them away as he studied his still damp lashes. "I'm sorry little brother."

He closed the door quietly behind him as he left, remembering part of the conversation he and Elena had not long ago.

"But when Stefan told you not to call Katherine you should have listened to him!"

"I'm not exactly in the habit of listening to Stefan."

"Well maybe you should be. He has a lot more common sense."

The problem was when it came to matters of the heart, common sense went out the window.

To Be Continued...