Damon was the first to see the fire.
He had went into the trees after Charlotte after she had told him to shove it up his ass. Afterward, after the search for his young sister concluded with no results, he tracked down Stefan and Elena- to see if Charlotte had returned to them. On his way, he passed a large house that drew his attention. His Power sensed that there were two people in the front room. One human, one vampire. Both drunk. One was Charlotte.
Damon just about flew over to the window and peered in.
Charlotte had a boy sitting next to her, and a large bottle of what looked like vodka in her young hands. They were both giggling hysterically, and then, to Damon's shock anger, the boy leaned in and kissed Damon's sister.
Okay- he thought- that is absolutely disgusting.
The way he remembered Charlotte was as a small, fourteen year old daddy's-girl. But now, here she was. Getting drunk and kissed by a disgusting human boy.
Damon found it strange.
Damon set off lightning with his Power, causing both people inside of the room to jump apart. The idiot human boy hit his head off of the sofa, and Charlotte just sat there. But as Damon looked closer, he noticed the mix of expressions on her face. Confused, angry, and scared.
Was she in love with this boy? No, Damon thought, she couldn't be. Charlotte knew nothing of love.
Then the boy talked for the first time. Well, the first time since Damon appeared.
"I've been wanting to do that for ages."
Damon grew tired of watching the boy trying to woe Charlotte, and flew away from the window in the form of a crow, making his way to Stefan's boarding house.
"Stefan?" he called when he was just stepping through the front door.
"What?" he heard Stefan's voice yell.
Instead of answering back he walked up the creaky stairs to Stefan's room, and opened the door.
His brother was standing by the window, wearing jeans and nothing else, and had a book in his hand.
"Why are you half-naked?"
"Just had a shower. Come look at this," Stefan replied, not taking his eyes of the book.
Damon walked over to him, and looked at the book. He didn't see anything eye-catching.
"What am I wasting my time with?" he asked, coldly.
"No, look there."
Stefan pointed a finger an old photograph on the top right-hand corner of a page in the book.
It was a picture of a girl and a boy, taken sometime in the early 1900's. The boy had his arm around the girl, and they were both smiling. The girl mischievously, the boy happily.
"So? Am I meant to care about this photograph?"
"Look closely at the girl. Look familiar?"
Damon did. And noticed what Stefan was looking at.
The girl was Charlotte.
It had taken him a while to notice as the photograph was black and white, not to mention old. But now that he looked closely, it was obvious; Stefan's green eyes, Damon's facial structure in a more feminine version; so obviously Charlotte.
"What is this book?"
Stefan turned the book over, and Damon couldn't help a laugh.
The Truth of Titanic
"Why on earth do you have Titanic books in your room?" Damon laughed.
"Shut up, it's one of Ms. Flowers'," Stefan grinned.
"Ah, sure."
Stefan swatted him with the book.
"Why were you looking at them?" Damon grinned.
"Remember when we were little and father took us to see the ships set sail? Charlotte was fascinated by them."
"Ah, yes, of course I remember. How could I forget the day you tripped on your shoelace and broke your arm?"
Stefan frowned.
"I broke my arm? I don't remember that."
"Do you not? You screamed the place down."
"How old were we?"
"I was nine, you were five, and Charlotte was four."
"I only remember the ships. I suppose I blanked it out," Stefan laughed.
"I suppose so."
The two brothers looked down at the photograph of their sister again. The silence stretched until Damon finally broke it:
"So Charlotte was on the Titanic?"
"Maybe. Or she could have been one of the people watching it set sail."
Stefan shut the book and looked at Damon.
"So, what did you come for?"
"I came to tell you I've found out where she's living."
His eyes widened.
"She's living in this town?! I thought she was just passing by!"
"No. And from the looks of it, she's been here for a while considering the close relationship with one of the boys she's living with."
"She's living with boys? Isn't that a bit dangerous?"
"If you're thinking that it's dangerous for the boys, you'd be right."
Stefan's green eyes widened again.
"But...she's a girl...you don't think she's...you know...with them?"
A silent pause, then Damon got what Stefan was suggesting.
"No, she can't..." But as Damon thought about it, there were three boys living in that house, and Charlotte was the only girl. It was a little strange that she was living with three boys. "Well, perhaps." Damon grimaced.
"Oh, ewww! I'm gonna go ask her," Stefan said, picking up a blue shirt from his bed.
"You're just gonna go to her house, barge straight in the door, and ask if she's sleeping with three different men under the same roof?" Damon grimaced, but was slightly amused of the scene playing out in his head of Stefan barging into Charlotte's boarding house. Maybe hitting an open cupboard door and breaking a finger or two...
"Well, emm..." Stefan paused, putting on his shirt. "Maybe not exactly like that. But Christ, she's only, what, sixteen? She's a child, Damon."
"Don't tell her that. She'll get pissed," Damon grinned.
Stefan grabbed his jacket from the bed, and made his way toward the door. Over his shoulder, he said to Damon:
"You coming?"
Damon thought.
"No, I feel like having a nice girl for dinner."
Stefan stopped walking and turned round to glare at Damon.
Damon narrowed his eyes.
"Alright, alright, I'll come."
"Hey, I wasn't begging you, Damon."
Damon walked straight past Stefan, and stood in the doorway.
"Maybe so. But you'll need someone to watch that you don't get too beaten up by her."
***
The two brothers walked their way to Charlotte's boarding house, Damon leading the way. He had wanted to turn into a crow, but Stefan through a hissy and wanted to walk. They passed by Elena's house, and many drunk teenagers were still running around inside and outside of the house. Damon wondered what had happened to Elena and the girls, and Stefan told him that after they had a quick search of the house to make sure Charlotte hadn't left any bloody 'birthday surprises', they had carried straight on with the party.
Girls.
God, why do I never thought I'd have to do this- Damon thought. Walk to my sister's house, with my stupid little brother.
"Will you keep up?" He hissed at that little brother.
"You're walking really fast."
"Get used to it. I'm not slowing down just cause your legs aren't strong enough."
Stefan sighed.
"Oh, shut up," Damon hissed.
"I didn't say anything!" Stefan said, glaring at Damon.
And that's when they smelled the smoke...
***
Two hours later, and Charlotte was lying on Stefan's bed; Damon trying to cool down her throat from the outside by placing cold, wet towels on it.
Unfortunately for her, when she had been unconscious she had breathed through her mouth- causing her throat to be hurt more than it would have if she had breathed through her nose. She had a lot of pain ahead of her.
Damon had found her on the floor, and had had to pick her up and carry her out of the house. Lee had asked to carry her, but Damon spitefully told him to get lost. Stupid human boy- he had thought. The fire brigade, cops, and an ambulance team all showed up soon after Damon, Stefan, and Charlotte had left. The boys were taken to hospital to be checked over, and they were all shocked when Damon run off with Charlotte.
The nearest place to bring her was to Stefan's house. Elena's was closer, but the amount of people still at her party was going to be too much of a problem. Damon placed Charlotte on Stefan's bed while Stefan went to get water from the tiny boarding house bathroom. Their sister was going to be in a lot of pain for the coming days.
But Damon didn't worry about that.
In fact, Damon hadn't worried all night. But one thing Damon didn't want anyone to know was what he'd seen when he'd gone into the flaming boarding house.
A man. A man with a yellow raincoat.
And the worst thing to Damon was; he hadn't been a long standing distance from the man, but the Power he had felt...unbelievable.
But what had shocked him to the core was the way he had just stood and watched Charlotte on the floor. He hadn't attacked her. The fire and smoke were obviously having no effect on him. He hadn't touched her. He just...looked.
Damon had tried to work out the expression on the man's face: but it was unreadable. He had appeared to be deep in concentration- not moving a muscle.
Charlotte was unconscious, so she had had no idea of the horror that was going on around her. But had the man planning on hurting her? He hadn't appeared to be.
Damon didn't wait around to see. He walked through the flames, putting his arm over his face to protect against the rising smoke, grabbed Charlotte by the waist and hauled her up. He didn't turn round to look at the man on his way out.
And now Damon stood beside his sister, waiting for her to wake up. Stefan had gone to Elena's house to check that she and everyone in her house were okay, and to ask her if she would change Charlotte's clothes. Huh, Damon had smirked to himself, that question would not go down well with Elena.
But rather her than me.
He looked down at his sister. Still no change in her movement.
She hadn't aged a lot during the two years in which he hadn't seen her in, but her hair was very long- back then it had been just passed her shoulders- and her body had grown from a child's into a young woman's.
Stefan came back from his little trip with Elena and Bonnie in tow. Elena looked down at Charlotte, then up at Stefan, then at Damon, then back to Charlotte again. Damon found this process rather amusing.
"What happened to her?" Bonnie asked, eyeing Charlotte's slightly burned clothes.
"House fire," Stefan replied.
"Does she live here?! In Fell's Church?!" Elena gasped, staring at Stefan.
Stefan grimaced.
"Yes, she does. But we can't really worry about the male population of the town right now. Charlotte inhaled a lot of smoke, and smoke damages vampire's more than the fire does."
"How?" Bonnie asked quietly.
"Nobody knows. But it's extremely painful."
They stood and stared down at the unconscious beautiful girl.
Then- surprising everyone, maybe even herself- Bonnie sprang into action.
"Right, you men, out of here!"
Stefan and Damon were both so shocked that it took them a second to realize that the girls were going to change Charlotte.
"Ah. Right. Yeah. You brought clothes?"
Elena lifted up a paper bag that had been dangling in her hand.
"I brought mostly baggy stuff, that way she'll be more comfortable."
Stefan smiled.
"Okay, thank you."
The boys both left, and the girls got to work.
Elena didn't entirely want to help the girl, and she knew Bonnie didn't either, but she knew that they had to. Charlotte was Stefan's sister, and she looked a lot like him with her green eyes and long, dark, slightly wavy hair.
But, to Elena, Charlotte was much more like Damon. She wasn't sure if it was the girl's high cheekbones or dark, furious temper- but Charlotte reminded her of him the most.
Was smoke really that harmful to vampires?- she thought. She'd never heard of smoke being harmful to vampires, but then again, she wasn't one of them. But whatever the case, Stefan and Damon were adamant that Charlotte was going to have a painful time recovering, and Elena had no choice but to help her.
