If my readers know where the title is from review and you get 100 awesome points because it's Legend-wait for it… Dary! :P

Chapter 4

Chase The Morning

*Third Person POV*

Sherriff Forbes had been working non-stop at the office for hours, her mind clouded with several different worries from "How many vampire threats were among them?" all the way to "Has Caroline tried to sneak someone over while I'm at work?"

She grabbed her office phone on the first ring, "Yeah? Send him in."

With that she put down the phone and awaited her visitor. The next moment, Damon Salvatore entered the room, holding a package in his hand.

"Mr. Salvatore, come on in-uh, could you get the door for me?"

He pivoted back to the task once accepting with a quick, 'sure'.

"I understand from Mrs. Lockwood that your uncle is out of town." She questioned.

"Yes, he is. But I spoke with Zach, and he filled me in, and asked if I could bring this to you." He referred to the package.

Sherriff took the package from his hands, carefully as if almost nervous about what could have been inside. She opened it up, pulling out a handful of purple-flowered stalks.

"Vervain?"

"That's all we have at the moment, I hope it's enough." Damon replied.

She took a moment to pause, seeming to inwardly console different concerns so she could proceed with the conversation.

"It's a small circle. Founding families, a few city officials-"

"And your deputies of course, right?" he asked, taking a seat, "Are we any closer?"

Sherriff shook her head slightly, "I think our facts are wrong; we've always thought that vampires can only come out in the dark, but what if that's changed?"

Damon turned his face into a false-look of confusion and shock, "Is that even possible?"

"We've exhausted every other option. We have to consider the vampire may be walking around in the day, right in front of us."

They sat in silence for a minute or two, both pondering different aspects of the situation. The Sherriff's thoughts on hunting the perhaps not-so-nightly-hunter and Damon's on how to keep his prey of choice running blind.

His thoughts almost began to go through his façade, and when realizing such he retreated back to it. He let out a hum of interest (and underlined amusement) before asking, "So what's the next step?"

"We're now looking at anyone new to town since the deaths began, should turn up a suspect or two."

"And I of course, will do anything I can to help." He replied with sympathy, adding a one-sided smile to soften it up.

"Thank you." Sherriff said, "Oh, I almost forgot, did Katy arrive yet?"

"Yes, she did. And that's another reason why I wanted to speak with you."

She nodded her head, "You wanted to see if someone else could take her off your hands?"

The answer would have yes, if Damon hadn't thought the situation was too delicate to be that frank. So he quickly rearranged some words and reasons in his head and presented his newly changed thoughts.

"No, but I am wondering why I was chosen for this; after all, you being a mom and all would give you enough reason by itself, but being Sherriff as well is a whole other reason why you're a terrific option."

Sherriff Forbes paused, briefly considering his argument and putting together her own as well, "I'm treading on thin ice with my superiors, with this favor. It would put me in risk of losing my position if I get too involved right now. I asked Mayor Lockwood, but he's having trouble with Tyler and work, and besides Carol told me she couldn't handle another kid right now."

Damon was getting more annoyed by the second at the possibility of having to put up with Katy for longer than he anticipated.

"And, how do you know she even knows anything about vampires? I mean, isn't possible she really doesn't know anything?"

She took a breath and explained, "I thought so too, that is, until a friend from the station in Georgia told me about the incident after Katy got there."

Damon became truly interested in this new piece of information and gestured for her to continue.

"After Katy was questioned, they were gonna let her sleep there for the night until they could contact an orphanage. She had left to go to the bathroom when someone called in about her, saying they were a family friend, coming to pick her up. He came in, asking for her, answered few questions as possible. But when they went looking for Katy she wasn't there. Thinking she'd run off, they called stations about a runaway, and the man who came in for her left after hearing the news. The next day he returned to check and see if they had any luck, none. But on the third day, they found her, or rather she came back."

"Where had she gone?"

"She had never left the station. She overheard something about the man coming to get her and she hid in the air vents all that time. She'd sneak out during the late hours of the night and take tiny portions of food from a mini-fridge. She explained that she didn't know any family friends and demanded that she be taken to an orphanage that very night."

Damon smirked slightly, amused by how demanding the kid sounded.

"She made such a fuss they took her there without contacting the orphanage first, and that's when my link called me."

He nodded in understanding as she continued, "She knows something, I don't know what it is but she does. And I need you to find out for me."

Damon paused for a moment to hide his ever-growing annoyance with the child, but managed to simply smile and say, "Of course."

*Katy's POV*

Lexi came into the room awhile later when it became dark, "Hey there! How did you sleep?"

"Good, how was your-ah-trip?" I said, remembering vampire hearing.

"It's okay, they're not home, vampire hearing goes both ways you know." She laughed, "Katherine isn't staying, I made sure of it."

"Good, I've had my fill of wacky vampires, no offense." She laughed again, then I continued, "Lexi, you never told me how you knew my parents. So, what happened?"

Lexi took a moment to inhale, she looked almost sad, "We were best friends at first..."

"Then how come I've never met you before?" I interrupted.

She smiled at me slightly, "We have, you just don't remember, you were only a baby."

My eyes widened in shock, I wasn't expecting to hear this. "Ba-You-What? How?"

Lexi looked to the ground with a torn look on her face, "Katy, I was-am, your Godmother."

I couldn't speak, let alone breathe in that second. That word just ran through my head over and over, Godmother.

No, I thought, It's not possible!

"What happened? How? Tell me!" I said in a weak voice.

Lexi's eyes turned back to me, and I could almost see old events unfolding in them, "Your mom and dad were getting used to their-business. Some idiot vamp with no control kept demanding more than they could stock, and started threatening them. Your mom was almost eight months along with you at the time, and she stressed herself out so much, she went into early delivery." She paused, as if waiting for me to comment or respond to something, I said nothing and she went on, "We got you both to the hospital in time; but you were so little, they got Adam to agree to giving you vaccinations to strengthen you, but right after you got really sick. We thought at first it was because you were so small, but your mother told us later how she's chemically sensitive, and so it turned out you inherited her inability to take chemicals. Immediately, they had you put into this kind of surgery, to clear out the chemicals. It did its job, but your tiny body couldn't handle the after affect."

She got a saddened look in her eye, almost as if she were about to cry.

"We thought you were going to die."

I used to think my parents never kept a secret from me, at least anything important, that knowledge was one of the few things I had a steady foothold in. Right now, I felt like the world shifted really quickly and I was staggering about.

I almost felt tempted to cry myself; I bit my lip for a moment to keep a strangled croak from escaping, once the feeling passed I asked her, "But I'm here, I'm fine now." My voice dropped to a more angry tone, "Lexi, what happened?"

She seemed to pull herself together as well and replied, "They asked me to give you some of my blood, to heal you. I agreed, of course, and you got better." She took yet another pause, but it certainly wasn't unfounded, "Your mother was being patched up herself, she bled a lot, so she couldn't be with you at the time. I offered her some blood too, but she just asked me to focus on you. I stayed with you through nights, compelled the doctors to let me stay, and gave you blood when you needed it, and made sure they didn't try the vaccinations again… Mothers are supposed to bond with their kids when they're born, but she couldn't and-" She looked at me intently, "I did."

I once again bit my lip to keep from letting out a cry, but this time I didn't succeed. Instead I let out a strangled breath and felt tears rush to my eyes.

"You… What?"

"I'm sorry; I was just trying to help my friend. But when you and your mom got home, I began hanging around more often- she put two and two together after a while, and she was so angry she told me to leave and never come back. I left, and waited a few weeks for her to cool down, but when I went back you all had packed up and left."

I sat there silent for a few minutes, or maybe longer I don't remember. I felt like I had hundreds of memories whispering in my ear back to back, contradicting and agreeing at the same time, all debating for my main attention.

"Katy, friends are important to keep close, because when life strips you bare, they'll cover you." Mom once said.

And yet she kicked out her best friend…

"No one can replace your family." She told me.

But Lexi tried…

If I felt like the world shook too quickly before, that was an understatement now. Right now, I felt like it was rolling out from underneath me, making me lose balance quicker each second.

I pursed my lips together to stop them from trembling; I couldn't take this, not now, I couldn't handle it. In a second I ran straight out of the room and right for the room across the hall, which I soon discovered was a bathroom.

I locked the door behind me and sunk down in front of it as I heard Lexi knock on the door gently.

"Katy, please come out. Please talk to me."

I didn't answer, which made her continue to repeat herself until she finally gave up. I myself had curled up in the bath tub, holding my knees to my chest to lessen my shaking. I wanted to cry, of all the things I could have asked for, what I wanted more than anything right then was to cry my eyes out and scream out any pain I was feeling. But I couldn't, I just couldn't…

And if wasn't for lack of reason, definitely wasn't because of physical disablement; I held my breath for long periods of time to keep from crying, and when a stray tear fell, I roughly wiped it away quickly.

No matter how much I wanted to, no matter how much my eyes and heart begged me to, I just couldn't cry.

*Third Person's POV*

Lexi had given up after a few minutes, deciding that any attempts to chat right now were futile.

"Having a tantrum is she?" The newly arrived Damon asked from behind her.

"Shut up, Damon."

"Have you tried offering milk and cookies? That's always a hit."

Lexi sped up to him and grasped his throat like she had earlier that day, "Listen up, I told you before not to ruin my weekend with Stefan and I meant it. But if you think you get a free pass by making fun of Katy guess again. So little tip Damon, don't mess with my best friend or my Goddaughter and you'll survive, got it?"

"Yup." He croaked.

"Good." She let him go and sat beside the door to the bathroom, hoping the kid would come out soon.

*Katy's POV*

I managed to calm down after a while, and I began to look at the door in front of me.

I knew I'd have to face her sometime, I'd have to face everyone sometime, but I just didn't want to. So I looked around me, and saw a window at one end of the bathroom (rather inconvenient for a bathroom, I thought). I looked out through it to see a huge oak tree with long thick branches right outside, I opened the window and crawled through just enough so I was sitting on the bottom of it. I grabbed a branch nearby and swiftly pulled myself onto the thick branch, stomach down.

At first I looked down and behind me to see how to get down, and at first it felt like I was screwed, but then I began to slowly shimmy down the branch towards the base. Once I got to the point where I could freely climb down, I sighed and continued my escape, only to find that I hang drop a good six feet before I could go anywhere. Though, I did manage it, I'll never attempt that again for fear my back would hurt even worse.

I wandered through town for a while, no one appeared to be out at this time, and that suited me just fine. I know it's stupid and pretty bad-horror-genre-like but I could have cared less at that moment. What I did care about was that my back began throbbing again, causing me to have to sit down on a park bench.

As I sat there resting, I saw one of the people I wanted to see least walk up to me.

"Hi there." Lexi said, "I know I'm the last person you want to see right now but-"

"You can't replace my mom." I said harshly.

Surprisingly she didn't look that offended then, she mostly looked hurt by my statement, "Look I never tried to replace your mom…" she stopped revaluating her words, "Alright, fine, I tried. I tried to take a mothering role in your life, and I'm sorry, but maybe we both need each other more then you realize. You weren't the only one that lost them."

"You hadn't seen them in twelve years, what could you have lost?" I yelled angrily.

She stopped a moment, her eyes glistening with fresh tears, "I lost time with my best friend. I lost time babysitting you when she wanted to spend time with your father like we'd originally planned. And I realized that, when this morning you walked up to the house, almost a teenager and handed me a letter that told me I lost one of my best friends forever. I forever lost the chance to apologize to her. Yet, I will forever have the memory her last words to me, which was an angry 'never come back'. And you may never fully understand this Katy, but for a vampire, forever is a very long time."

And with that she sped off. Leaving me with my thoughts about… Well, everything.