Chapter 24
Family

School had been pretty brutal; Elena convinced me to take a few days and study extra hard to get my grades back up when she found my report card.

I swear to God, Mom is possessing her, because she went on a rant about my future, and ended with "Sweet Jesus, she's just like my brother!"

Replace 'brother' with 'father' and you'll get the idea.

I was already scaving by with an average of C's and one or two B's, and worse with on D in Science.

So today, I was studying with Dex and Joelle, hoping to help get my grades back up. But it got hard to study when Dex was going through half a pack of Newports.

"Dex, can you not do that right now? It's giving me a headache." I told her.

"Fine." She said, putting out her cigarette, "It's not so bad once you try it though."

"But it's bad for you." Joelle said, her face slightly panicked.

"Says who?"

"Well, studies have shown that drugs can make your brain bad." Joelle replied.

After that phrasing, I knew this wasn't gonna end well.

"Bad how?" Dex said, somewhat patronizing, "It's relaxing, what's wrong with that?"

Joelle thought for a moment, "You see weird things."

Dex shrugged, "You see weird things when they give you a tranquilizer at the hospital, no one complains then."

"I think what she means is your brain becomes non-functional after copious amounts of illegal drugs." I tried.

She snorted, "Sounds great to me."

I sighed, "Look Dex, we're really worried about you. I think you should talk to someone."

She stopped and gave us both glares, "You two weren't worried about me before we began these little therapy sessions. So why don't you little bitches do your thing, and stay outta my business."

She started lighting up another cigarette, took a puff, and then blew it in my face.

"Dex-"

"I'm outta here."

We kept looking at her until she walked out of our line of sight; Joelle turned to me, now looking very packed, "She needs to stop, she's gonna get in trouble."

"I know, but what can we do? She's just pushing us away the more we try, this is the third time we've blown an attempt to talk to her."

"We need an adult, someone who knows what their talking about to back us up."

"She won't listen to them anymore then she'll listen to us. It might even make it worse, they'll just send her to a clinic!" I exclaimed.

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"Not if she's unwilling. She's doing illegal drugs right now, and she's already been warned multiple times. As far as I know its jail or rehab, and knowing Dex, she'll go to prison before she takes help." I sighed.

"What if we tell her parents? Maybe she'll listen to them?" She suggested.

"No, we don't know that for sure. I think we need to take some time and collect information first. Start brushing up on our facts, and we'll take it from there."

"Fine." She opened one of her textbooks, and then turned back to me, "Because I for one want Dex healthy."

"No arguments here."

I didn't know a lot about drugs or addiction, but I thought if I could ask Jeremy about it maybe I'd get some magical idea to help Dex quit.

I'd been lazy about it, but as I started doing my Science homework, it was talking all about how the body reacts to chemicals, and named approximately 20 different ways someone can die or get into terminal medical conditions by using drugs.

And I'd be damned if that happened to Dex.

***Third Person's POV***

During that time, Damon had been called into a meeting with John and Sheriff Forbes.

"There was a disturbance at the hospital blood bank last night; some of the supply was compromised." Sheriff told him.

"Compromised? You mean stolen?"

She nodded, "We almost missed it. The inventory records were altered but when the night manager was questioned he had no recollection of changing them."

"Meaning that the vampire who stole the blood used mind control to hide the theft." John explained.

"I know what you meant."

"We wouldn't have noticed had John not alerted us to recent discrepancies in other hospital blood banks in the country."

Damon took a minute, practically saying through his teeth, "How lucky for us, we have John."

"We're stepping up security at the hospital, giving the guard vervain to prevent this from happening again."

"Sheriff, may I offer a suggestion?" John said, "Why don't Damon and I put our heads together? We can track down whoever is doing this."

Damon managed to send a glare in his direction while Sheriff said, "Truthfully I can use the extra hands. Is that something you would be willing to do?"

"Well, of course, I mean if it'll help." He said, giving a false smile.

"I think we could make a good team, don't you think Damon?" John smirked.

"John, whatever I can do to help keep this town safe; even if it means spending time with you."

Katy knocked on the door of her counselor's office, "Ms. Lark? You requested me outta class."

"Oh yes Katy, come sit." She said, "I'm sorry to take you out of class, but you've been missing our sessions."

"Yeah, I've been busy."

"I've noticed." She smiled, "You've been making friends I see?"

"You mean Dex and Joelle?" Ms. Lark nodded, "Yeah they're great friends. Is that all?"

"Well, that's part of it." She clarified, "I'm told that Dam- Mr. Salvatore, is adopting you officially."

Katy's jaw slacked in shock, "Where in the name of hell did you hear that?"

Ms. Lark gave her sympathetic smiled, "Principal Winthrop told me sweetie. The legal firm being used to administer the adoption called to confirm you go here, and your progress- which is a topic for another time. But since I'm working with you, Principal Winthrop thought I should be informed."

"I see." Katy replied in a monotone.

"So tell me about that."

Katy shrugged, "Not much to tell. He asked, and I said I wanted to think about it. End of boring story."

"So you haven't given him an answer yet?"

"I don't have an answer yet." She said, "Can I go now?"

"Are you sure you don't have an answer yet?" Katy nodded, "Let's fix that."

Ms. Lark reached into her desk drawer and pulled out a coin, "Heads you leave, tails you stay."

Katy thought this was a completely ridiculous exercise, but she smiled slightly and nodded to Ms. Lark, who flipped the coin high in the air. But as the coin came down, Katy got a contemplating look on her face, and she leaned forward to see where the coin might land.

But before it hit the desk, Ms. Lark caught it in her enclosed hand, and simply put the coin back in its drawer.

She gave Katy a smile, "What do you think now?"

Later, Ms. Lark told Katy that she needed to start her Gym classes immediately since her grades were already falling flat, and she hadn't attended any of the classes for Gym since she got there.

The problem was, you had to buy a uniform for Gym, and they wouldn't let you participate if you didn't have one.

"You can't borrow mine, we have the same schedule." Joelle told her sadly when she heard, "Didn't she tell you where to get one?"

"No, she just said 'find a uniform'." She groaned, "Where am I gonna find one?"

"In lost and found."

The girls turned to see Dex, for once without a cigarette in her hand. She had her arms crossed, and had her chin turned up in pride.

"You're talking to us again?"

"This is the only free table without bitches, expect you." Her eyes refered to Katy, "But I can stand you. Anyway, just go steal one from lost and found, girls leave stuff there and never come back for it so they have a reason to skip class."

Katy and Joelle turned to look at each other; the second shook her head slightly, "I don't think this is a good idea."

"Well, what choice do you have?" Dex asked, "Come on."

A few hours later, Damon opened the door to reveal Anna.

"I suppose I should be grateful, you learned how to use the bell." He sneered.

"I'm here on behalf of my mother."

"On behalf of or in spite of?"

"I'm sorry about what the other vampires did to Stefan. Abducting him, torturing him… It wasn't supposed to go down like that."

"You're playing house with half of a tomb of really pissed off vampires. What do you think was going to happen?" He practically growled.

"My mom is devastated; they tried to over throw her." Anna explained.

"Why isn't she here telling me this?"

"She doesn't really do apologies."

"Well, it's a coincidence, 'cause I don't do forgiveness. Just run along." Then he scolded, "And if you're going to continue playing house with these little vampire pets, you might wanna stop robbing the blood bank dry because they're onto it!"

Anna looked confused, "I haven't been to the local blood bank in at least a week."

"Then it's one of your others."

"The others are gone, Damon."

"Well, where did they go?" He said, pointedly.

"They weren't cut out for this town. After what happened with your brother my mom kicked them out and they took off. It's just us and Harper now."

A little while after Anna left, Katy came in, looking around.

"And she finally returns!" Damon said, walking in, "How was school girlie?"

She looked uncomfortable, "Not good."

Damon had a short flash of concern go across his face, "Why? What happened?"

She slumped down on the couch, "Well, I've been missing Gym, since we haven't had time to get a uniform. And today Ms. Lark informed me my grades aren't good enough for me to wait for it. So Dex and Joelle took me to lost and found and we took a uniform that didn't really… Fit."

"What do you mean, didn't fit?"

"I mean, the shirt and pants were three sizes too big, and the sneakers were two sizes too small. Dex used her hair scrunchie to make the pants fit. And during a volleyball game, they kept sliding down, so I had one hand holding them up. But coach kept shouting 'Weston! Both hands in the game!' and when I tried and I jumped up to hit the ball, my pants fell off-"

Damon simply roared with laughter at the image.

"It's not funny!"

"Oh come on Katy it is!" He noticed her glaring at him and cleared his throat, "I'm sorry, so what happened next?"

She shrugged, "Well, Joelle and Dex covered me, and the guys laughed. Though, I know Dex said something along the lines of 'Shut up Terrance! That's the closet you'll ever get to see a girl naked!'" Now both she and Damon laughed, and she admitted, "That was funny."

After they laughed for a minute, Damon looked at her a second and asked, "Why did you come back here?"

"No avoidance remember? And I do live here." She smirked.

"Aw, you missed little old me?" He mocked.

"Like you didn't miss me."

They smiled at each other, and then he asked, "How's that decision making going?

She sighed awkwardly, "Okay look, I haven't decided yet. But I've been talking to Elena, Jeremy, and my nutty school counselor. And so far I think that I need to spend some time with you, maybe it'll help my 'decision-making'."

"Well sorry girlie, you picked a bad time to suggest family bonding. We might have an issue."

Damon told Katy what had been happening with Stefan, and even told her about his recent conversation with him.

"So do you believe him?"

"No, I know Stefan on human blood."

She nodded, "So what's the plan?"

"I'm gonna tail him for a while, I need you to go back to Elena's for a while-"

Katy gave him an aggravated look, "Ahem. You remember the last time you left me at home?"

"Let me finish." He said, "I need you to hang around Elena, keep her occupied, ask her about Stefan and his activities. Maybe it'll help if I can't find anything today."

"Fine." She conceded, "But know that you sticking me with the desk jobs will affect my decision!"

"Oooh! I'm so scared!"

Katy finally stepped up to her job of keeping Elena occupied, which recently entailed helping her with Miss Mystic Falls.

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow, I love you." Elena said, finishing up a conversation with Stefan; she picked up two dresses and held them in front of Katy, "So which one do you think?"

Both dresses were pretty; one was a sleek dark blue dress and the other was a sleek strapless cream colored one.

Katy thought a moment, "Hmmm, I like the cream but it's a little too 'wedding dress' for the occasion. So, blue one I guess."

"Okay." She said, placing the blue dress on the couch, "Thanks for helping me out, I'm having trouble focusing."

"Stefan giving you a whiplash?"

"No… Yeah. It's good, he's happy, happier than I've ever seen him. I guess it just seems sudden is all; he goes from struggling to chipper almost overnight. But I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, right? I've just got to get through this pageant."

"Why are you doing it anyway?"

"I have to, it's my mom's legacy. It's what she left for me to carry on."

"Ahh, family legacy. You know what my mom left as family legacy?" Elena shook her head, "A career feeding some of the most dangerous creatures of all time, the same species which had in fact killed her, and a very disturbing Ferbie collection that managed to make it into our car. Point is Elena, family legacy is highly overrated."

She laughed, "You sound like Damon."

"Well, maybe we have a point." Katy replied, "Anyway, I gotta go, I wanna talk to Jeremy about something. Good luck Miss Mystic."

She walked out of the kitchen and headed upstairs, knocking on Jeremy's door. He opened it and smiled at her.

"Hey Kate, come on in. What's up?"

She sat down next to him on his bed, "I have some questions."

"Is this about the adoption again?"

"No, I wanted to ask about addiction."

Jeremy's interest was piqued, "Addiction? To what?"

She shrugged, "Drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, the works. We're learning about it in school, but teachers are pretty generic and don't really give you an unbiased point of view."

"Katy." He gave her a look, "Tell me the truth."

She sighed, shutting her eyes for a moment, "My friend, she's a drug addict. I want to help her, but I don't know much about drugs, so I need to learn."

"Well, the first thing you need to know is that no matter what anyone says, she won't stop." He told her, "The last thing she'll listen to is preaching."

"Maybe, if I don't understand what it's like, or at least have an idea. That's what I need you for, to understand." She begged.

"Look, Kate, addiction usually starts at home from my experience. It's something to get away from your family and life, as far as I'm concerned she won't even consider cutting back until those problems ease up or go away." He explained.

"Well, how do I find out the issues so I can help?"

"Katy, that's not going to help her, she won't tell you her issues, and even if she did, she won't accept help unless she wants it."

***Katy's POV***

On the day of Miss Mystic, I helped Elena and Jenna set things up, but I soon left when it got awkward, and when I had nothing to do or couldn't help anymore.

So the first thing I did was find Damon, and I soon found him walking in a hallway, and after we said our brief hellos I asked, "Hey, did you find anything?"

Damon nodded, "Oh yeah, he's swilling."

Even though he'd told me, it was somewhat shocking to hear, and I asked hesitantly, "Well, what are we gonna do now?"

And Damon told me very firmly, "You are going to stay with Jeremy, I'm going to talk to Elena. You are not going anywhere near Stefan right now."

"He won't hurt me."

"You don't know that, and you're not going to find out."

I felt very put down, I didn't like being treated like a child, so I insisted, "No, I am helping!"

Damon grabbed me by the shoulders, looked me directly in the eyes and said, "You know how you can help Katy? You can give me the peace of mind of knowing when Stefan snaps, you are nowhere near!"

He waited a second before continuing, "Because I don't care what official papers and lawyers say, you are in my care and under my watch, so you are not going anywhere near him! Got it! Now either tag along with Jeremy, or stay in my line of sight until I say so."

It was shocking, I knew Damon cared about my well-being, but that was the first time I saw he cared about me.

He never used the phrases 'I don't need to be concerned with watching you.' Or 'I can't risk blowing the operation if you screw up.' Or something to that affect.

He legitimately cared if I got hurt, and cared about the possibly of my getting injured. I suppose it never quite hit me until then, and so I just nodded and headed off to find Jeremy.

I saw Jeremy trying flirt with some girl, so I decided to just leave that situation alone for a while, after all I have to follow the Bro Code.

So I hung around Jenna and Alaric, but then I also had to leave that situation alone, so I just decided the safest bet was the stay with the crowd. But given my luck, one of those people in the crowd was the ever inquisitive John Gilbert.

"Katy." He greeted, as the announcements for the Miss Mystic Dance began.

I barely gave him a nod as I asked, "More threats today? Did you find any good ones?"

He laughed a little, "No threats. I have an offer."

I gave him a look of mock surprise, "An offer? Really?"

He nodded. "You help me, and I will give you your mother's files."

At this point I had to recycle my 'dumbass' look, "You think I want some bullshit medical files? That means nothing to me."

"Not her medical files."

Before I could respond, Mr. Lockwood announced, "Miss Tina Fell, escorted by Bartholomew Whitmore."

During the applause, I cleared my throat and asked, "What are you talking about? What kind of files?"

And John explained, "When I realized your mother was dealing in blood, I started looking her up at City Hall, and found some of her records."

"Well, why should they interest me?"

"Because those files just may contain information about remaining blood relatives of yours."

My eyes widened, and I had to keep my jaw from dropping, barely registering Mr. Lockwood announcing Caroline's entrance.

I looked over to John again, he was beaming with pride; he thought he'd won!

And my mind raced with so many thoughts and fears, but I was brought back to reality when I saw Damon escorting Elena to the dance. And I looked at them for a minute, and it hit me that Stefan was nowhere in sight.

I didn't even stay for the dance; the second the situation became clear to me, I ran to find out what had happened.

And I soon found the Sheriff and her deputies surrounding a bathroom, which looked like a hurricane had it, and I saw blood mixed with the glass around the sink.

So I ran off again to go wait for Damon, not knowing if he knew about the crime scene upstairs. But I got lost around the house, and I went outside going towards the crowd, but when I turned I saw Stefan with some girl walking into the woods.

And I started to go towards them, but he turned my way and saw me, I stayed in place but he took one look at me and ran off so quick I couldn't tell which way he'd went.

I heard the music stop, and I ran to Damon who had just finished his dance with Elena, and I told him everything I saw.

"I think he was going left but I can't really tell." I told him urgently.

He nodded, pacing slightly, "Alright. I've got to tell Elena, you need to go stay with Jenna and Alaric and wait for us."

I wanted to obey, but I felt my lip twitch with fear. And Damon seemed to notice this too and he assured me, "I'll drive you back home, I'll tell you everything, and if I don't come back on time you can tell Alaric and he'll come to find us."

I nodded only a little and placed myself in a small chair, "I'll be here."

He left soon after that.

While he was gone, I waited patiently in my seat, twiddling my fingers nervously as I sat still. Until finally, I heard a siren going outside, this made my heart start going.

This was getting all too familiar, so I ran outside into the dark parking lot and saw an ambulance parked towards the surrounding woods. And to my relief, I saw Damon talking to the Sheriff next to the ambulance.

I walked towards them, and as I came closer they seemed to have finished their business and Liz left. I got up to Damon and asked,

"Is everyone okay?"

"For now." He said, "But we need to do something about Stefan."

"You're not gonna-"

"No, but it will be severe." He admitted.

***Third Person's POV***

Damon drove himself and Katy back to the boarding house, but up ahead he saw Pearl and Anna at their doorstep. He told Katy to wait in the car while he talked to them.

"All right now, this is getting weird." Damon told them as he walked up.

"We're here to talk." Anna said.

"Not in the mood, today's been a no good, very bad day."

"Annabelle tells me you're looking for something I took from Jonathan Gilbert."

He paused, "I'm listening. What is it?"

"Jonathan was passionate about his inventions. He confided in me that he had created a detection device meant to track down the town's vampire element."

"It was a pocket watch." He recalled.

"That's what it turned out to be yes. But that's not what I stole. I discovered my mistake when I saw the watch in Jonathan's hand, the night they took us, its stile pointed at me." She said, handing him the small device.

"So what is this?"

"I have no idea but now it's yours."

"What's the catch?"

"There is no catch. My daughter wants to stay here. I want to stay here. You refused to trust us and for good reason. Consider this an apology." She glanced briefly at Katy, still sitting in the car, "After all, we both have families to look after."

During this time, Stefan was pacing angrily upstairs in his room. Grabbing his head, and growling in frustration and anger.

But slowly Elena walked into the room.

"You shouldn't be here."

"I know." She said.

"Now you know." He said, referring to his new eating habits.

"That wasn't you."

"Oh, it was absolutely me. A monster, a predator, that's who I am Elena."

"That's what the blood makes you."

"The blood brings out what's inside of me and if you think any differently then you're an idiot." He said his eyes hard and his voice low.

"I know this isn't you Stefan." She insisted.

"I wanted to drain every ounce of blood from that girl's body."

"No."

"It's who I am Elena." He started to growl slightly.

"No, you can't scare me off."

"Why would you risk it? Why would you come here?"

"Because I did this, this is my fault; I'm the one who made you drink the blood."

"All you did was expose me to who I really am."

"This isn't you." She persisted.

"Stop saying that!" He growled, then back away, "Don't get any closer to me."

"I'm not gonna give up on you! I believe in you!"

He pushed her up against a wall, slamming his fist next to her head, "Stop! Stop!" He stopped, calming down, "I'm so sorry."

"It's okay. It's okay." She replied soothingly.

He laid his head sadly on her shoulder, "I don't know what's happening to me."

"It's okay, Stefan. It's okay." She pulled out a vervain dart and jabbed him with it, "You're gonna be okay."

As Stefan fell to the ground, Damon came up the stairs, looking at Elena and his brother.

"Sure you want to do this?" He asked her.

"I'm sure."

They took Stefan down to the basement, and put him in the caged part where Damon had been held up once in the same position.

"There's no guarantee it's going to work." He said, locking the doors.

"It has to."

Damon nodded, and began to leave as she sat down besides the cage. He turned back and asked,

"Coming?"

She shook her head, "I'm gonna stay here."

Once again he nodded, and sat down beside her. Damon heard a rustling above them upstairs, and called,

"Katy!"

In a minute she came downstairs, looking somewhat worried.

"What's wrong?"

"We're gonna hang down here for a while, come and sit with us." He said, "Just so we know where you are."

She thought that was a little weird, but she sat beside them in silence just like them.

"My limbs are going numb, we should wake her up now." Damon said, referring to Katy who had fallen asleep on him.

"Come on, just let her sleep. One of us should." Elena paused for a moment in thought, "Thank you Damon. You've really helped today, and I didn't think you were capable of any of this; helping Stefan, protecting us. I guess what I'm saying is, I think you could be a good father, with some practice."

But instead of a snide remark or even a smirk, Damon got a blank look on his face and pushed Katy off him, walking upstairs.

Katy herself awoke with a jolt, "What's going on?"

Elena looked almost astonished as she said, "Katy, go talk to Damon."

The young girl looked confused, but she got up and headed upstairs to where Damon sat in the living room, pouring a glass of whiskey.

"Hey, you okay?" she asked.

"Answer me honestly okay?" she nodded, "Do you think of me as your parent? As your father? Do you even think I should take his place in your life?"

Katy sighed, "No, Damon. You will never take my Dad's place, and I don't want you to."

He paused a moment, reverting back to his sarcastic self, "Thanks for being honest."

"That's not a bad thing, Damon."

Damon gave her a look of interest, gesturing for her to continue.

"You don't need to take my Dad's place, you have your own place, your very own custom-made Damon place. Lexi wasn't supposed to replace my mother, but was a mother-like figure to me. That's what you are to me."

She sat down on the couch, continuing, "I told Elena that I wasn't unaccustomed to setting up new roots, I just didn't realize I wasn't used to keeping them. And with John recently offering me a chance to track down some family members; maybe he lied but he was going to give me the resources. And I was amazed to realize that, when given the opportunity, I didn't want to."

Damon slowly started to come closer to her, "It scared me a little, but I know that if given the choice between a family and a normal life or you and this town, I want to stay. If it's still on the table, can I be your kid?"

Damon started to smile, but then he decided to smirk instead, "Yeah. Of course you can."

Katy smiled, one of her first real grins in that house. But she stopped and asked,

"So should we hug or something?"

Damon kind of shrugged nonchalantly, "Well, we are father and daughter technically."

So they nodded and both went in for a tight hug, during which Damon asked, "What do you think?"

"A little uncomfortable." She admitted, her voice kind of muffled, "But really because you're crushing my spine."

"Oh!" He pulled away, "Sorry."

Katy giggled as she stretched out her back, "We need to work on that."