Chapter 5
Stay With Me
I knew I was harsh, hell, harsh was putting it nicely.
I shouldn't have said those things to Lexi, but the awful thing was I meant them, or at least I did at the time. Not anymore though, I didn't mean one word, but I wasn't gonna admit it.
I sat there for God only knows how long, until I had had enough and stormed away from the area. I went down one of the alleys to make a short cut, when I heard something behind me.
I didn't think much of it and quickened my pace up the alley.
I continued to walk down the alley until I heard the noise again. I had a good idea what is was and rolled my eyes at the thought, "Three guesses the first two don't count. Katherine."
And sure enough, after a moment or two Katherine appeared right in front of me, smirking so much I wanted to punch her really hard in the face (in fact, I sometimes wonder why I didn't).
"You're getting good at this game." She laughed.
I scowled and said, "I hated my name before, but you officially ruined it."
She smiled proudly, "I think it just gets better and better." She paused a moment, "How did you know it was me and not Elena?"
"Well, I may not know her but I'm pretty sure Elena doesn't lurk in alleys. And another thing is you were so suspicious last meeting I sort of figured." I shrugged.
"Hm, I see. Well, doesn't matter, I have a long trip out of town and I could use a quick drink." She threatened, her eyes becoming veiny.
Immediately, I grabbed a pipe from the alley and held it up, ready to defend myself. It wasn't a particularly good weapon against a vampire, but hey, it was a weapon and that was all I needed to know.
"Don't even think about it bitch."
She looked at the pipe and laughed, showing her now fully grown fangs, "You think you can fight me with a pipe? That's not going to do you any good, you stupid child."
"Yeah you've got a point there." I said, placing my hand in my pocket and grinding up the vervain I had placed inside earlier, "But this will!"
As I said that, I took the vervain out of my pocket and threw the grinded up dust at her. Some of it hit her and she began hissing in pain, which gave me an opening to flee. I ran down the alley and went straight for the nearest house I could find, knocking quickly as I looked around me.
After a minute or two the door opened to reveal, God I wasn't expecting this, Damon.
"Ah!" I jumped slightly, "Are you just gonna be everywhere I turn?"
"Hey ever think maybe it's you whose everywhere I turn?" he replied.
"Fine, it's a tautology."
"Who are you?" I looked behind him to see-well, what I at first thought was Katherine, than remembered the duplicate human thing. I also decided that no matter how fast Katherine was, she probably wouldn't be able to straighten her hair and change in all of ten mille-seconds.
I took a moment to keep myself from shouting "CRAZY ANGRY BITCH ON THE LOOSE!" and replied, "Katy, the current stain on Damon Salvatore's life."
"What?" she asked, clearly confused by the situation.
Damon rolled his eyes, "She's in my custody for a while, the poor little orphan girl." He said in a mocking voice that made me want to vomit.
"Wait," Elena said, processing the info, "you are given custody of a child? Are you crazy?"
"Sing it sister." I muttered.
"Why, what's the big deal?" he said, earning an 'Are you nuts?' look from me, "I'm just doing what St. Stefan's always telling me to do. And that would be to do something good for someone else."
Towards the end, he used the top of my head as an arm-rest, and began playing with some of my stray hairs; honestly, I couldn't decide whether it was disturbing or insulting, probably both.
"Yeah, whatever; yo, Fanzie's latest fashion victim, I need a ride back to the house." I said.
"Ah, ah, ah what's the magic word?" he said, pointing an accusing finger in my face.
"If you don't get that finger out of my face right now I'll show you a very special one?"
He smirked at me, wisely retracting his hand from my personal bubble, and turned to Elena.
"Well, parenthood calls, gotta get this little one to bed." He mocked, insulting me (if possible) more by putting his hands on my shoulders and smiling like a parent.
"God I hate you." I said, "Now let's go, I've had enough of the tension between you love birds."
Both of them looked rather taken aback, well Damon looked more smug than taken aback, and Elena broke the silence asking, "There's nothing between us, what made you say that?"
I rolled my eyes and replied, "Oh for God sakes, if it were any more obvious there'd be a musical number!"
With that I walked back onto the porch, but not before hearing a rather amusing free-comedy from the Tension Duo.
"She's at that age, suffered a tragic loss." Damon said, even though clearly his voice stated he couldn't give a damn.
"She needs somebody to care right now Damon."
Just when I was about to roll my eyes, I heard the comedy begin, "You're right, you're absolutely right Elena. She needs a family, and right now I'm basically a father to her."
Okay, at those last words I kept repeating the phrase 'I'm screwed' in my head.
"Yeah, you are, and that's why you need to quit your self-serving psychopath ways and actually care about someone for once."
"Well, Elena, I think what she needs is someone to look up to. Someone who understands what it's like to lose your parents."
"Wow Damon, that actually sounded like you care." She said surprised.
"And seeing as you are obviously better advice then Emo-Teen, you'd be the perfect candidate for the mother-figure role to my father-figure role."
I heard Elena let out a humorless laugh saying, "Very funny, now go."
"You know, since we'll be-for all intents and purposes-married for however long she'll be around, I think maybe we should discuss living arrangements. Like where we both sleep-"
"Out." She stated, opening the door.
Damon stepped outside, closing the door as he said, "Bye honey."
After he closed the door he turned to me, "You're gonna start using me as a pick-up line aren't you?" I asked.
He smirked, "Don't need you for that kid. Come on, get in the car." He gestured to the blue car in front of the house. I was about to sit in the front when I heard a disapproving 'tsk tsk tsk' from behind me.
"Uh uh, back seat girlie."
"Who are you calling girlie?" I said, offended.
"You. Now back seat."
I rolled my eyes and went to the back seat, sitting with my arms folded. Damon got in the car and looked at me in the rear-view mirror.
"Aw, don't look so down. If you're good I'll give you a cookie when we get home."
"Oh a cookie! Well, that changes everything!" I said dramatically, than reverted back to my scowl.
"You know, if you keep making that face it'll freeze that way."
"Clearly you don't practice what you preach."
That's about all we said for the rest of the car ride.
Once we actually got to our destination, I looked at the house nervously; I had only just now remembered Lexi would be there, oops.
"Well, you're back. Go on." Damon said to me.
"Is Lexi still in there?" I asked him.
"How would I know?" He smirked.
I gave him a look as if to say 'I'm not stupid' and replied, "Can you hear her in there?"
"Aw, are you avoiding her?"
"If you must know, yes."
"Why's that?"
"I don't want to talk about it."
"Well, hey I think I can help."
"What are you my therapist now?" I muttered.
"You don't want to be here, am I right?"
"Gee, what brought you to that stunning conclusion?"
He rolled his eyes, "Shut up and listen. In order to get you back to Miss Hannigan so you can go find your Daddy Warbucks or whatever, I need you to tell me what happened that fateful night when you lost your beloved mommy and daddy."
I turned to him with a look of sheer anger on my face, "No!"
"You're gonna have to tell me sometime, or else we're gonna be roomies for God knows how long." He said, unphased by my outburst.
"I don't want to talk about it!" I yelled.
"You don't want to talk about a lot of things, but you know what? I don't want you here anymore then you want to be here, so tell me right now or if you thought I was unpleasant to live with before, you can't imagine how much you'll hate me in a few days."
"I already hate you after a few hours!" and I reached over with the hand I grinded up the vervain with and touched it to his face, making him growl in pain. Immediately after I ran from the car and went inside, knowing whether Lexi was in there or not.
When I entered the house I saw she wasn't there, nobody was. So I just ran upstairs to my room and slammed the door behind me, taking off my jacket and slumping down on the bed once I had.
Suddenly the door opened to reveal an angry looking Damon; I looked at him, clenching my jaw tightly in anger.
Instead of saying anything, he marched right over to the closet and pulled out my duffle bag. He zipped it open and pulled out all my stakes and (using his jacket to protect his hands) took all the vervain I had in there. He sped away with the objects, and within seconds returned again empty handed.
I continued to look at him without saying a word, but my face was shouting every swear word in the book.
He took a seething breath and said, "If you ever try that again, I'm not going to let you off the hook next time. Luckily for you, I'm feeling rather charitable, so you get one free pass. Now when I leave this room, I am going to lock the door and you will go to sleep. I'll let you out in the morning."
Then he stomped off through the door and slammed it shut, afterwards I heard the distinct sound of a lock and groaned in aggravation.
After a minute or two of screaming into a pillow, I changed into my PJ's and begrudgingly went to sleep, though it took a while.
*Third Peron's POV*
Damon sat by the fireplace, throwing in Katy's vervain and stakes in one by one, until he heard his cell phone ring.
He picked it up just before the third ring, "Hello?"
"Damon, its Sherriff Forbes. I got a call from one of my deputies saying they saw Katy running through the streets tonight."
Damon sighed heavily before replying, "Yeah that was her. But don't worry I got her back here, she went out earlier today and didn't tell me. I went looking for her and got her home, but she's upset and won't talk. Sherriff, I hate to be an inconvenience but I don't know if I'm the guy for the job."
He spread his words smoothly and laced them with fake remorse; he figured if he could just get the Sherriff to think Katy wouldn't attach herself to him he could get rid of her, and still keep a certain trust with the Sherriff.
"Look Damon, I'm sorry but I can't move her right now, at this point she's the most information we have. The basic time we have is about four months, that's all no more no less, and once the due date has past she's gone whether or not she says anything. I just need you to try Damon, please."
He took a breath to hold back an argument and replied, "Alright, I'll do what I can."
"Good." She said, "Listen, I spoke with the student counselor at the local elementary school, and she's willing to speak with Katy before she's enrolled. I can set-up a meeting for tomorrow morning if you want?"
"She'll be there. Thank you Sherriff."
"Bye Damon." And hung up.
After the conversation, Damon noticed he had gotten down to the last stake of Katy's stash. But instead of burning it, he looked at it for a moment with a contemplating smile.
*Katy's POV*
I tossed and turned when light hit my face from the window, I had barely slept all night and I wasn't ready for daytime just yet. I threw my blankets over my head and for the fifteenth time since last night attempted sleep.
Unfortunately, I would soon learn my asshole of a guardian was a firm believer in 'the early bird catches the worm'.
I heard the door of my room unlocking from behind me, followed by an annoyingly chipper Damon, "Rise and shine girlie."
"No, go die." I murmured into my pillow.
"Already did that, now up you have a session with a therapist, and I'd say you've been put on the waiting list long enough."
That got my attention right away as I groggily sat up, "Wait a sec, you signed me up for therapy sessions?"
"Well technically Sherriff Forbes did, but I agreed because I feel that since I'll be your parent for the next four months, I should take on a responsibility for you." After a minute or two he burst into laughter, "Come on get up, you don't want to be late!" he ended as he walked out the door.
I face-palmed as I said, "Oh this just keeps getting better and better doesn't it."
***One hour later***
Damon and I hadn't spoken throughout the entire car ride, and when we reached the school counselor's office, we were placed in the waiting room for almost forty-five minutes (again without a word).
"You know, I'm still waiting for that apology for burning my face last night." He said.
"I wouldn't hold your breath on that if I were you." I said, twirling mom's ring around my thumb.
Then out of nowhere, Damon reaches for the ring and grabs it (clearly in pain, but ignoring it all the same) and put it in his jacket pocket.
"Hey give that back!" I hissed, trying to keep my voice low so the secretary wouldn't hear, "What are you gonna compel me to apologze?"
"No, but consider this my form of punishment."
My voice dropped to a desperate tone, "Please give it back. It was my mom's, I can't lose that ring!"
He looked at me without any remorse on his face, only triumph and said, "You should have thought of that before misbehaving."
I reached over to try and take it from the jacket pocket, but he grabbed my hands and looked me in the eye.
"You will get the ring back when I say so, and when you go to your session with the counselor you will not say anything about vampires in Mystic Falls, and nothing about our little exchange right now. Understand?" He compelled.
"I understand." I answered robotically.
He smirked, "Good." And let go of my hands.
I folded my arms as I waited to be called in, my lip quivering slightly in anger about the situation.
I was never very fond about the idea of therapists; they were always just trying to fix people. Which, yes sounds okay at first, but here is the difference between fixing and healing: Fixing implies tinkering, and replacing parts, and polishing, and tuning so that the object is more convenient for the owner. Healing implies growth of inner peace with oneself and naturally keeping away anything harmful to the psychological mind.
What I basically mean is, I want to be healed not fixed-God that didn't sound right.
After a minute more, the counselor came outside and looked at us smiling. She was a tall woman, short black curls for hair, with fair skin and brown eyes. She had small black-rimmed glasses hanging off the edge of her nose, was wearing an off-white peasant blouse, and some beige capri-pants to match her wicker-like heels.
"Hi, I'm Marianne Lark, you must be Damon Salvatore and Katherine Weston then?"
"Katy Weston." I said, only an inch of self-control away from having growled my own name.
She smiled, "Alright, Katy it is then. Come on in, sweetie."
I raised an eyebrow slightly, but went towards the room anyways, turning my head quickly back to Damon for a second as I did so.
Ms. Lark turned to him too asking him about whether he wanted to join the first session or not. I huffed at that and heard him tell her he wasn't going to be joining just as I expected. After clearing up when he had to come back to get me, he left the office and headed for the parking lot, as I took a good look at the room around me.
It wasn't much…
It had a bookshelf that was half empty, a desk with boring papers on it, a sofa in front of the desk, and a mini-fridge with a coffee maker placed on top in a corner.
I took a seat on the sofa and waited a bit before Ms. Lark came back and sat at the desk in front of me.
"Well, Katy, how do you like Mystic Falls so far?"
I took a second to think about which four-letter word to describe this psych-ward passing as a town. I ended up with replying, "Dull."
"Really? I think it's rather unique."
Lady you wouldn't be half wrong on that one, I thought.
"I haven't been here long enough to make an informed decision." Yes I have, I contradicted in my head.
She nodded and turned to her papers, pushing up her slipping glasses.
"I'm sorry for your loss Katy, it hurts to lose someone close to you." She said sympathetically.
"Understatement of the freakin' century, but yeah." I muttered.
She took a breath and replied, "Do you want to talk about it?"
"No."
"Okay. But you know Katy, I've found with a lot of kids your age, it helps to get it out."
A lot of kids my age don't have to be right outside when their parents die agonizing deaths, heck, a lot of kids my age don't lose their parents to begin with!
"Well, I don't want to talk about my mom and dad's demise, thank you."
"What about after?" she asked, rendering me confused.
"What?"
"What about after they died. When you went to the police station, how did you feel?" she asked.
"How do you think I felt?" I hissed at her.
"I don't know, I can't imagine how it must have felt. Why don't you enlighten me? Tell me about it, and maybe I can understand."
I hesitated. I didn't quite expect her to ask me about after; during of course, how I felt right now maybe, but I hadn't really thought about after. Though as less emotional then the actual death was, I briefly remembered the awful moments in the vent, hiding from yet another vampire.
But I figured I might as well buck up and say something relatively emotional so I could get out of here.
"After I was questioned, I was told that I was gonna be staying there for the night, then they could drop me off at an orphanage nearby. They had a couch I was gonna sleep on; they had some blankets in the janitor's closet. I went to the bathroom that was right next to there, and before I came out I heard them talk about a 'friend' of my parents coming to get me."
"I freaked, I didn't know anybody by the short description, and I didn't like the sound of it. Once the other cops I overheard left, I rushed to the janitor's closet and hid. I tried to think of something, a hiding place, and then I saw the vent and I decided it was perfect to hide in just for a day or two."
"I grabbed a blanket from one of the cupboards and crawled through a few yards before I decided to rest-"
"Katy, I need you to tell me how you were feeling, not what you were doing." She said.
I took a pause and continued, "I wrapped the blanket around me, but as a precaution took my socks and tied them around my wrists to keep warm blood flowing while I was in there."
Then came the hard part: when I really remembered my first night in the vent.
"When I tried to sleep, I-I couldn't. So-um… I remembered this thing that my mom always told me to do when I got scared. To put my hand out, and imagine that Jesus was holding it, and protecting me."
"Were you feeling scared?"
I shook my head, "No." my voice began to crack, but suddenly I just couldn't have cared less, "But I just wanted her back, I wanted them back!" I felt tears well up in my eyes, "I stuck my hand out, and tried to imagine she was holding it. But it didn't work! Whenever I used to try, I'd feel better, or comforted or something! But nothing happened."
And again, as much as I tried to hold them back, stray tears slowly began to fall.
"And I kept trying harder and harder to think of her being there! And I just kept feeling the cold air from the vent. And I started to drift off, and I thought I saw them for a second. And I tried to open my eyes wider to see them, but that just made them leave! And I kept asking them 'please just stay with me, just until I fall asleep. Stay with me' but they-they di-"
I felt it, I felt it all start to rise to the surface ready to burst. And I knew if it did, I'd start telling this woman everything that had been going on (or at least as much as I could, with Damon's compulsion) and I didn't want to handle all that right now.
"I-I can't-no more-no-"
"Okay, okay honey, no more." Ms. Lark assured me, "You've have enough today."
"W-where is the bathroom?" I asked.
"Right next door. You can go, I'll give you a few minutes and then we can talk a little bit more-"
"No! I-" I steadied my voice, "Can I just go home?"
She looked at me with an understanding look on her face, she seemed to consider it in her head before she nodded, "Okay, I'll call Mr. Salvatore and tell him to come pick you up, okay honey?"
I nodded, "Yeah, thanks I-uh-I just need a minute to myself-I'll-I'll be right back." I said sprinting out the room and to the bathroom next door.
***Twenty Minutes Later***
I had taken a few minutes to myself so I could stop any chance of sobbing. I managed to dry any stray tears, and once again used my breath control method to stop it. After a few minutes I was alright again, but I decided to avoid any more therapy sessions from now on.
Damon arrived to pick me up just in time, and drove us both home and the same silence as the ride there, giving me time to contemplate things going on.
And I came to a conclusion about one issue…
*Third Person's POV*
Lexi had been wandering about the house, aimlessly and bored while Stefan had gone off to school. She walked over to the bar, and decided to spite Damon a little by pouring a big glass (that she knew she wouldn't drink most of) of Damon's favorite scotch.
Slowly, Katy's small face peeked out from the doorway and her eyes landed on the woman at the bar.
"Lexi?" she said sheepishly.
Startled and nervous, Lexi spilled a small bit of her drink as she quickly set it down, "Katy, hey. Are you okay?"
The two girls had focused so much of their attention on their budding conversation that neither noticed Damon watching the two curiously with his arms folded.
Katy shook her head, "No." The young girl took a breath, "Lexi I'm sorry I treated you so badly. And I've been thinking... I don't have anyone, and I guess I wanted to keep everyone away cause they wouldn't replace the family I lost, and I don't want anyone to."
She took a step forward, shifting her feet anxiously as she continued, "You'll never replace my mom, or my dad, that's not going to happen. But if you want, I can trust you enough to come close. I really need that right now.
Lexi smiled widely as she sped over to hug the girl, "Of course I want that, that's what I've always wanted. Don't worry honey," she noticed Damon watching as she continued, "I'll always be here for you."
Katy smiled slightly as she returned the hug, "I know I haven't made this clear but I'm glad you're here Lexi."
Lexi smiled wider at her, pulling away from the hug so she could look her in the eye.
"I'm glad you're here too. I got something for you upstairs in your room, why don't you go up and get it and I clean up my drink okay?"
Katy nodded and went up the stairs, disappearing into the hallway.
Slowly Damon walked out of the space he was in and towards Lexi, "You shouldn't make promises you can't keep Lexi. After all, you're just here for Stefan's birthday and she's gonna be gone in four months."
"A lot can happen in four months. And who says my plans won't change for a special occasion?" she grinned.
"Me." Damon smirked.
*Katy's POV*
I rushed into my room, practically skipping with new found peace since the reconciliation a few moments ago. I went in and saw, neatly placed on my bed, a stuffed old envelope.
I sat on my bed to take a look, and found inside it were a handful of pictures. And not just any pictures, pictures of my parents and Lexi.
The first one was a picture of a poorly angled self-taken photo of Dad, Lexi, Mom, and baby me in front of an old house. I read the sharpie-written caption on the bottom of the Polaroid picture that said: Baby's first day home!
Then as I looked through, I saw more pictures, mostly of mom and Lexi in high school. Pictures of mom doing a cheer routine (This is one of the many reasons I think I was adopted), her and Lexi at a party, one or two of dad at a chess club match (this is reason number 2, I stink at chess), and just a bunch of pictures of them all together.
I could only guess mom left Lexi with these cheerful memories when she decided no more, which was probably why I never saw them.
And as I looked at them over and over, I thought to myself, Maybe I'll be able to start healing.
Please review! And check out my new story "Gwendolyn" and feel free to review that too! I need input people! It helps the writing come faster! :D