Chapter Three: October, 1996
It was pushing midnight when Deanna finally pulled her old Chevy truck into the driveway. She glanced up at the dark house and sighed. As much as she enjoyed having the house to herself, she really missed Valerie and Danny. She honestly couldn't wait until their anniversary cruise was over, and they came home, filling up the house with their noise.
The silence was about to drive her crazy.
Tired, Deanna reached over and gathered her backpack and gym bag. She crawled out of her truck at a snail's pace, wincing at sore muscles and the jolt of pain when she knocked her hip into the side of the truck, the bruise Dalton gave her when he jumped on her in all his two year old hyper-ness throbbing with her heart beat. She cracked her neck, and then started up the front porch steps.
It was her exhaustion that made Deanna less than her normally observant self. She was almost at her front door, when she saw the dark figure leaning against the side of her house, blending in with the shadows of the wrap around porch. She froze, and then forced herself to back slowly down the porch, prepared to drop her bags and fight back at the unknown figure at any moment.
It was then that the shadow chose to take one step forward, coming into the light of the moon just long enough for Deanna to see who it was.
"Jesus Christ!" Deanna hissed at Damon as he leaned casually against the porch railing, both hands in his pockets and his breath making small puffs in the cold air. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"
Damon just smirked, as if he'd planned this reaction from her the whole time. "Little jumpy tonight, D?"
Deanna glared and stomped up her front porch. She brushed past Damon and dropped her bags at the front door. "It's Deanna, not D." she snapped. "And maybe if you weren't standing on my porch pretending to be a ninja, I wouldn't be so jumpy."
"But where's the fun in that?" Damon asked.
Deanna rolled her eyes and ignored him, unlocked her front door, and then reached for her bags, piling her gym bag on her shoulder. Damon managed to grab her backpack before she could reach for it, and slung it over his shoulder, not even wincing at the weight; and Deanna knew how heavy it was. She was the one who'd filled it up.
She raised an eyebrow, and then shrugged. If he wanted to carry her heaviest bag and act like some sort of gentleman, who was she to argue. "What the hell are you doing here anyway?"
"I was in the neighborhood." Damon said vaguely.
"And decided to hang out on my front porch?" She asked as she marched inside. She tossed her keys on the kitchen counter, threw her bags in a corner to be picked up later, and then turned around. Damon, whom she'd expected to find lurking behind her shoulders was nowhere to be seen.
A moment later, Deanna found him, still standing on the front porch, exactly where she'd left him. "Were you gonna come in? Or was it your plan to just stand on my porch all night and freeze to death?"
"Is that an invitation?" Damon asked, leaning against the door frame.
"To what? Come in or freeze? 'Cause I gotta tell you, I could have it either way. 'Course, if I let you freeze, then Mrs. Phillips next door will come over tomorrow morning wondering who the strange man on the porch is..." She drifted off and glanced over to the tan colored house to the right. She shuddered in mock horror. "I don't think I could handle another one of her talks about how the male species is evil and plotting to destroy the world."
Damon just sighed, an impatient sigh that made Deanna roll her eyes. "I was serious." he said.
"So was I." Deanna replied. When Damon didn't do anything, she sighed. "Do you need a gold plated invitation?" She curtsied. "Please, sir, come inside and share the warmth." The sarcasm dripped off her tongue.
Damon shook his head at her, but walked inside. He tossed her backpack to her as if it weighed nothing, forcing her to take a step backwards with the weight. She grunted slightly, before she dumped it mercilessly on the ground at the foot of the stairs.
"Not that I'm not thrilled to see you," Deanna started, making a bee line for the kitchen. "But what are you doing here? Really?"
"Maybe I missed you." Damon said. He followed her to the kitchen and sat down on one of the stools surrounding the island in the middle of the kitchen.
"Oh, please." Deanna said, "You and I both know you only care because Sophie cares."
Damon pretended to be offended at that statement, but at Deanna's raised eyebrow and knowing look, he let it fall off his face like water. "Yeah. True."
Deanna nodded and started puttering around the kitchen. "You're not going to tell me, are you?" She didn't even turn to look at him, but she did make sure she never turned her back completely on him. Damon smiled at the warrior he could see beneath the 'normal good-girl' act.
Damon didn't answer her, and Deanna just continued to ignore him. She moved around him silently, and eventually tossed a bottle of water at him before she gathered her bags and headed up the stairs, watching him in the reflections in the glass of the pictures that lined the stairwell.
Deanna opened a door at the top of the landing, and walked in. Damon followed into her room and sat down at her desk chair, spinning back and forth slightly.
He watched her start to toss the books that had been in her backpack on her bed, and saw her startle when he spoke. "So, what's your story, D?"
"Deanna." She said absently. "And I don't get the question."
"I mean, last time I was here, I pretty much told you I wasn't human. You didn't even bat an eye."
"Should I have started screaming? 'Cause for someone who isn't human, you're a lot less scarier than some of the actual humans I know."
"You should be scared of me." Damon said.
"I'm not." Deanna replied. She tossed her shoes into her closet and then plopped down on her bed, wrinkling the purple comforter, and flicking her hair behind her shoulders.
"Why not?" Damon asked, confused.
"'Cause contrary to what you think, you are not the scariest thing I've ever seen. The most annoying wannabe ninja maybe..." She pulled a book from the pile on her bed, grabbed a pen and her notebook and started writing.
"Which leads me back to my question. What's your story?"
"Do I have to have a story to know that there are things that live in the dark? Maybe I'm just not as oblivious as most."
Damon continued to stare at her until Deanna looked up from her notebook and sighed. "Okay. I have a story. And it's none of your business. So back off. Go bother Sophie or something."
"I'm curious." Damon said, and Deanna could hear the almost whine in his tone.
"Too bad." Deanna said, going back to her work. "It's my story. Not your's."
After a few moments of silence and a cold breeze suddenly drifted through the room, Deanna looked up and saw Damon was gone, the doors to the narrow widow's walk that wound around the side of the house open, blowing the cool October wind in through her room.
Deanna sighed and got up to shut the doors. After closing them, she looked at her homework and tossed it all on the ground.
A few minutes later, Deanna was curled up in bed, fast asleep, drifting into dreams of a dirty blonde haired boy and green eyes that matched her own.
O~O~O
Damon left Sophie's house and headed started for the hotel that he'd discovered the last time he was in Lawrence, the leather bound book he'd stolen from Deanna burning a hole in his pocket. He could still smell Sophie's scent all over his clothes and he couldn't help the smile that started over his face.
Sophie had turned five earlier that year, and even through all the questions and stories, was thrilled to see him, even though he hadn't been back to Lawrence in more than a year. He'd given up feeling guilty about her being attached to him. He enjoyed her warmth too much. And if she wanted to gift her sunshine filled smile to him, he really wasn't going to argue.
After checking into a room and making sure it was booked for the next week, Damon shrugged out of his jacket and then sat down at the table next to the window looking out over the small city. He pulled the book out from his jacket pocket, and opened it up, curious about the teenage girl who protected the small town from the things in the night, and who took his threats against her life as little more than annoyed scorn.
Damon thought he'd stolen her diary. What he found surprised him.
Instead of the diary he'd thought he'd stolen, this looked more like a record book. It'd started in 1994 with 'May, 1994. Dean attacked by Wampus. Grand Rapids, Michigan.'
"The hell?" Damon muttered to himself. In Deanna's delicate and careful handwriting, she had documentation of things that a young girl like her shouldn't even know about: Wendigos, ghosts, a whole section on exorcisms for demons (that looked like the real deal, and not the crap that was on TV), how to banish a poltergeist, and ways to keep evil from entering a home. He did smile, however, at the entry that made a mention of vampires. 'Vampires: Dean says they don't exist. Catalog under same category as unicorns, fairies, the Loch Ness Monster, and Bigfoot. BS.'
And that was the end of that.
Every few entries, there was a longer commentary, about someone named 'Dean'. 'I talked to Dean today. He still doesn't believe I'm alive. But he misses me so much, he's not going to complain. Not that he actually said that. I know how he is. He's more likely to respond to sarcasm and scorn then hugs and love. Boys.' And in between, stories about 'Dad' and 'Sammy'. 'Sammy made the soccer team at school. Dean was so proud of him I thought his head was going to explode. The coach thinks that with Sammy, they could make it to the championships. Dad's not thrilled. I agree that they need to train, but why can't Sammy be a boy...a kid, for just a little while longer. And soccer has lots of running, right? I'll tell Dean next time I talk to him. Maybe he can use that arguement against Dad to help keep Sam on the team.'
Damon spent the majority of the morning reading the strange book. It was one of the last couple of entries though, that made him stop. 'I finally got Dean to tell me about Mom last night. A demon killed her. A demon with yellow eyes. That's what Dad's hunting. Dean didn't really know much else. I felt bad, making him relive it. But I had to know. He was miserable. I made him cry. I just wish...I wish I could be there with him. I miss him so much. I just want my brothers back.'
When Damon finally made it to the last entry, he carefully put the stack of newspaper clippings back in their plastic bag and slipped them between the pages again. He was staring out the window, tapping his jaw with his finger thoughtfully when angry footsteps stomped outside the door.
The door rattled with the force of someone pounding on it, and then a voice from behind the door yelled out. "Damon Salvatore! Open this door right now!"
Damon got up and opened the door. A pissed off teenage girl stood on the other side, and Deanna pushed her way in. It looked like she had just crawled out of bed, her sweatpants wrinkled and a sweatshirt thrown over them. Her messy hair was pulled into a pony tail and her eyes were bleary and swollen.
It looked like she'd been crying.
"Give it back!" She yelled at him.
Damon just stared at her, and then walked over to the side table he'd tossed the book on. He held it in her direction, and she practically ripped it from his hands, and then stomped from the room, slamming the door behind her.
She had only been gone for a second before Damon heard her footsteps again in the hallway. The door slammed open with the force of her anger and bounced off the wall. She stomped back in, letting the door slam shut behind her.
"The Hell were you thinking?" Deanna yelled. "Do the words 'personal space' mean any God-damned thing to you?"
"Who's Dean?" Damon asked calmly.
"None of your damn business!" Then her eyes widened. "You read it? What the hell is wrong with you?"
"I'm curious."
"Curiosity killed the cat, you know. I...just..." she was so angry she just let her sentence trail off. She wiped a hand over her face and huffed in frustration.
Damon shrugged. As impressive as her anger was, she wasn't all that scary. "I find you...fascinating. It's not very often I find someone who isn't scared of me."
"Fascinating?" Deanna was screeching at him now, and Damon could feel her anger crackle int he air. "Fascinating! You know what I find you? An asshole! I can't believe...no, wait, I can believe that you would stoop that low. You stay the hell away from me!"
"Is that all real?" Damon asked, ignoring the fuming teen in front of him. "Is all that true? And if so, how are you able to communicate with them? I thought they disappeared. The lady I talked to before said no one's seen them since the fire."
Deanna whipped around to glare at him. "Tell me, Damon. You're so interested in my past, I want to know about your's. What prompts a grown...person thing to latch on to a five year old, huh? What in fact are you, if you aren't human? What's your story?" When Damon didn't answer, Deanna huffed. "Thought so. Stay away from me, and stay away from my past."
Damon watched her storm out the door, slamming things in her wake. He shrugged his shoulders and walked over to the bed. He sprawled across the covers, making a mental note to track her down later, once she had calmed down and was willing to talk instead of yell.
He was asleep within seconds.
Deanna stormed out into the bright sunlight, and took a deep breath of the cool air. She felt like her skin was too tight, and there were bugs crawling all over her. Tears welled up in her eyes again, and she clutched her journal close to her chest. She'd thought she'd lost it. Her only tie to her past; the past that sometimes seemed as fragile and ethereal as a ghost.
Another deep breath later and Deanna turned towards the parking garage she'd parked in. She had thrown her things into the back of the truck bed and was reaching for the driver's door when a hand clamped down over her mouth, covering it with a piece of cloth.
Deanna barely had time to struggle before her world collapsed into darkness.
O~O~O
Something was wrong.
Damon knew that the second he woke up, and he suspected it was the feeling of 'wrongness' that had woken him up in the first place. As much as he mocked Stefan for 'feeling', Damon had been alive long enough to know to trust his instincts.
And this instinct was telling him something was very, very wrong.
Damon reached over, ran his fingers quickly through his hair and reached for his jacket.
Damon headed for the parking garage, his plan being to 'borrow' a car and drive over to Sophie's, just to be sure she was okay, before he figured out what was wrong. He stalked through the dark area, and was heading for the black Charger when he saw the truck.
Damon frowned, and instead of going to the charger, walked over to the beat up Chevy. The black backpack he'd helped Deanna carry the day before was tossed into the bed, and her keys were stuck in the door. But there was no sign of Deanna. He walked around the side of the truck, looking for any signs of a struggle, when his foot accidentally kicked something on the ground under the truck.
Damon crouched down and reached his hand under, and pulled out Deanna's journal. He frowned again. After her blowup, he knew Deanna wouldn't just leave this lying around, and she certainly wouldn't just leave her keys in the door of her truck, not when she should have been gone hours ago.
The bad feeling Damon could feel rolling underneath his skin only intensified. He took her keys and got in the truck. He was soon speeding down the road toward Sophie.
Damon didn't actually make it to Sophie's house, as three police cars lined the side of the road. He got out of Deanna's truck, and headed down the street, sticking to the shadows. Listening in on the police officer's conversation, he was able to hear that someone had kidnapped Sophie.
Red clouded Damon's vision and he resisted the urge to hit someone or something. He raced off down the street, intent on going to Jasmine's to demand she return Sophie...and Deanna, when he caught the scent of another vampire.
Damon slid to a stop and whirled around as a vampire with long blonde hair and blue eyes that shone in the even gloom stepped from the shadows.
"Amy." Damon growled, falling into a loose fighting stance.
Amy smiled and flicked her hair over her shoulder. "Damon. I wish I could say it was nice to see you again, but..." She let the last of her sentence trail off.
"Give them back." he snarled, letting his teeth show.
"No."
Damon lunged forward and wrapped his hands around her throat, shoving her against a tree. The tree groaned.
Amy didn't even try to fight back. She just continued to smile at him. "Go ahead. I'm not afraid to die. But if you kill me, you'll never find your girls."
"Where are they?" Damon asked, resisting the urge to rip her head from her shoulders.
Amy's blue eyes crinkled in her amusement. "The rumors are true. I heard you'd gotten soft, caring about humans and such, but I didn't think it was actually true. I mean, Damon Salvatore, caring about someone other than himself? And not just any someone's, but two human girls?" She clucked her tongue at him, before Damon choked off more of her air. Amy let out a surprised squeak.
"Does this seem soft to you?" he snapped,
"You didn't have to kill him, you know." Amy whispered, looking up at him with dewy eyes. Damon frowned.
"He threatened my brother." Damon said, digging his finger tips into the side of her neck. "I wasn't about to let that stand. Now. Where are Sophie and Deanna?"
"Carter was just doing his job!" Amy screamed at him, voice cracking under the strain of Damon's hand around her throat. "If your brother wasn't such a humanitarian, he wouldn't have gotten himself into that mess. He was just collecting on the contract."
"He stood up for himself, and that makes him bad?" Damon laughed. "Stefan is the best of all of us, Amy. You want to know why?"
"Why?" Amy spat. "Why is he any better than Carter?"
"Because Carter was a cold blooded killer. Stefan, the moron, protects everyone, human or vampire or demon, just because he's a nice guy. And I'm not saying it's smart, in fact, I agree he's an idiot. He knows it pisses off a whole lot of creatures, but Stefan doesn't hurt anyone unless they attack him first. The thing with Micah? Micah attacked him first, just because he could. Stefan defended himself. Now, Carter didn't have to go after him. He didn't have to collect on that contract. But he attacked my family, and I take that personal."
"He was my mate!"
Damon shrugged. "Don't get me wrong. Killing humans...far as I'm concerned, with few exceptions, they're nothing more than cattle. They have their necessary functions, but when they've outlived their usefulness, I really don't see the point in keeping them around. They're pests, Amy. But killing vampires? That's a whole new level of evil. And when that evil targets the little bit of family I have left..." Damon shrugged. "Well, you saw what I did to Carter. And I'll do that to anyone who threatens him, or Sophie. Now. One more time. Where is she?"
"You've killed other vampires." Amy pointed out.
"You noticed that all the vampires I've killed have threatened me, or people I care about?" Damon pointed out. "I don't just kill my people for the hell of it. I kill in defense of myself, my brother and my humans. That's three people in the whole universe. Carter had six billion other people and vampires to threaten besides them."
Amy huffed a laugh. "You really have gone soft."
"Where are Sophie and Deanna? Last chance." Damon said.
"Dead." Amy said with a grin. "Like you said, they're just cattle, right?" She winked at him. "An eye for an eye. I already know I'm no match for Stefan, but a couple of humans? Girls? They never stood a chance. And your scent was all over them. It's obvious you love them, seeing as they're still breathing. The older girl didn't even put up a fight. And the little one? So delicious. My fangs slid into her like her skin was made of butter..."
Amy never got to finish her sentence, as Damon swung his hand, knocking Amy's head clean off her shoulders. Her body stayed upright for a second longer, before it slumped to the ground with a satisfactory thump.
Damon went through her pockets and found a key for a motel, two towns over. He pocketed it, and headed back for Deanna's truck.
He had some humans to find.
O~O~O
Deanna woke to a pounding headache right behind her eyes, and an insistent shaking on her arm. She groaned and rolled over, trying to squelch the urge to throw up. The shaking only intensified, and it took a few seconds for Deanna to realize there was a small voice attached to the shaking.
Deanna forced her eyes to blink open, thankful it was dark, wherever they were, and tried to focus on the face that had planted itself in her vision. Sophie's worried features slowly swam into focus.
"Deanna? Deanna, please wake up." she whispered worriedly.
Deanna forced herself to move to a sitting position, hoping she wasn't going to throw up, and reached for the five-year-old. "Soph?" She licked her lips, trying to get her tongue to un-stick itself to the roof of her mouth. "Are you okay?" she asked, leaning against cold metal. She flinched momentarily, at the chilled air, and let the young girl burrow into her lap.
"Yes." Sophie whispered, snuggling close to Deanna. "I was scared you weren't going to wake up."
Deanna wrapped her arms around the girl, and blinked into the darkness. The only things she could see were metal bars of some sort of cage. It wasn't even tall enough for her to stand up in, and she was only slightly taller than five feet. It was too dim to make anything else out, but she was thankful it was wide enough for her to stretch her legs out. She wasn't too keen on small, confining spaces. However, it was too dim to see anything more.
"I'm okay, Sophie. Don't worry." she said, even as she shivered again, and closed her eyes against a wave of nausea.
The next words out of Sophie's mouth surprised her. "I want Damon." She whined petulantly. "I want to go home."
In the last year and a half, Deanna hadn't heard Sophie make any mention of Damon, and she'd expected Sophie to be calling for her mother, or her father, not for the dark haired stranger she'd only met a few times.
"I know." Deanna whispered, looking around as much as she could without moving and without letting go of Sophie. "I want to go home too."
"Is Damon going to come for us?" Sophie asked. "He said if I was ever scared, he'd come make it better. He said he'd scare the dark away from me. He said." Her green eyes looked huge in the darkness, and she blinked at Deanna, begging her to understand. "He promised."
"I...I think he'll try to find you." she answered as honestly as she could.
Sophie nodded. "He'll look for you too." She looked determined. "I made him promise to be nice to you. And he said you would. 'Cause you're my pretend big sister. And Damon said that's okay. That it was his job to keep me safe, and if I wanted, he'd keep you safe too."
Deanna rolled her eyes. "Can you tell me what it is about him that makes you like him so much?"
Sophie shrugged against her. "He's...I'm just his person."
"You're his person?" Deanna repeated skeptically. "What does that even mean, kiddo?"
"He's sad all the time." Sophie said, playing with the frayed edges of her shirt. "And he's...scary. But not to me. And everyone needs a person, right? Like Jeremiah is your person?"
"Jeremiah is my person?" Deanna asked. And despite the situation they'd found themselves in, Deanna was amused. "I didn't know that."
"You didn't?" Sophie asked. "I thought everyone knew who their person was."
"What makes you think Jeremiah is my person?" Deanna asked.
"Mr. 'Miah makes you smile. And you get all glowy and sparkly when you see him."
"You know that Jeremiah and I are just friends, right Sophie. We're not like your mommy and daddy. He's not my boyfriend or anything."
Sophie wrinkled her nose. "Well, no. Gross, Deanna." Deanna laughed. "That would be icky. You're not like mommy and daddy. You're just his person. Like I'm Damon's person. Like Uncle Andy is Daddy's person and Miss Valerie is Mommy's person." She looked up at Deanna, willing her to understand.
"You mean, you're his best friend?"
"Yes!" Sophie said, exasperated, like it was difficult explaining such things to her.
"Why?"
Sophie shrugged again, and Deanna felt her shiver. She gingerly detatched herself from the little girl, took off her sweatshirt, shivering in the cold in just the tee-shirt she'd worn to bed the night before and wrapped it around Sophie. Sophie curled into the warmth, and then sat back down against Deanna. "Because there's no one else to be his friend." Sophie finally said, after she was settled. "It's just me. And everyone needs a person, right?"
Deanna nodded wrapping her arms around the tiny girl. She had started to get concerned. The temperature seemed to be dropping, and she'd been looking at her breath for the last few minutes. She wrapped herself more firmly around Sophie, trying to keep her warm with her own rapidly dwindling body heat.
"Sometimes you're sad too." Sophie suddenly whispered into the darkness. Deanna jerked. She had drifted into a kind of cold haze, daydreaming about sandy beaches and warm sun. She blinked the heaviness from her eyes, and forced herself to stay awake. There was no telling how long she'd been dozing.
"What?" she croaked out. Her nose was running, and her throat was sore, and she couldn't feel her legs or her butt anymore. Sophie wiggled weakly against her, completely contradictory to the hyper, excited and bouncy girl she was used to.
"You're sad too. Sometimes."
"Like Damon?" she asked wearily. She was so tired, and if Sophie would just be quiet for five minutes...
"No. Not like Damon. Different. But still sad."
"Hmm..." Deanna murmured.
"I think it's your empty space that makes you so sad. I guess I'd be sad too if I was only part of a person." Sophie said. She leaned back to look at Deanna. "Maybe if you filled up your empty space, you would be happier more often."
Deanna's eyes flew open at that. As sluggish as her mind was becoming, she'd heard that phrase before. From a brother she hadn't seen in almost fourteen years. "My empty space?"
"Yeah." Sophie turned to look at her. "You have a missing piece. Like a puzzle when you drop the pieces on the floor and one piece falls under the couch, and you don't know it, and so the puzzle isn't finished. And it has an empty space."
Deanna forced a smile. "I don't have any empty spaces, Soph."
Sophie sighed. "I forget. Sometimes grown-ups can't see the empty spaces. I don't know why. They're really big!"
Deanna looked at her for a moment, and then leaned back against the wall. She was starting to drift off again, when Sophie spoke, quieter than before, sounding weak and scared. "What if...what if Damon doesn't find us? What'll happen to us then?"
"I don't know, squirt. I really don't know."
O~O~O
Damon pulled Deanna's truck up outside the old meat packing plant, and spread his senses wide, searching for any sign of the girls.
He couldn't hear them or smell them, and that scared him to death.
Damon had tracked down the motel that Amy had been staying in, and after compelling and threatening an employee, he'd found out that Amy had been very interested in the old abandoned buildings in the area.
Especially places that were open to the elements. October in Kansas was extremely cold.
Cold enough that two humans might not be able to survive.
The old meat packing plant was the third place he'd checked. He didn't know what he was going to do if he got to the end of the list and didn't find them.
The cold, achy feeling of loss had settled itself deep in his chest, preparing himself for the worst. He mostly just wanted to curl up in a corner and wither away and die, as he'd wanted to do when Katherine had been killed. But Stefan had pulled him back to the light. Stefan had shown him there was a reason to live. Even if his reason was keeping his idiot brother alive. He'd promised, a long time ago, that he'd look after his brother. And it was that feeling of duty that had kept him from falling on a stake an ending the insane foreverness or eternal life.
Now, for Sophie, he'd found a reason to live for him. Not for anyone else. Sophie was his, just like Stefan used to be. And he'd keep trying, for her, until the end of time.
But if she was really gone...
He couldn't guarantee he couldn't just curl up somewhere and die.
Damon forced those thoughts out of his head, and picked up the flashlight off the floor board of Deanna's truck. He jumped out onto the snowy ground and stomped over to the door. He ripped it open, not taking the time to be subtle.
The old building was freezing, and a light sheen of frost covered most the objects inside. He shuddered to think how long the girls might have been there. How long until they succummed to hypothermia? He'd seen first hand, back during the Civil War, what hypothermia could do to a person. An image of Sophie, lying on the ground, skin and lips blue and chapped, eyes open and eyelashes covered in frost, dead, popped into his head. He forced it away, and an image of Deanna, the same way, replaced it.
Working around those kinds of thoughts, even though each one felt like a bullet in his back, Damon started a quick, but effective search of the whole building. It wasn't until he was halfway to the small storage shed at the back of the property, that he heard any noise.
A faint and weak thumping.
Thumping that any vampire would know as a heartbeat.
Damon broke off into a run, and tore open the shed door. He swung the beam of light around and froze when it landed on the sight in the corner.
Deanna and Sophie were curled up together in the corner of an old fashioned cage made out of iron bars. Sophie sat on Deanna's lap, huddled down in her sweatshirt. Her eyes were closed, and her breathing was obviously shallow. Deanna didn't look like she was breathing at all, her lips blue and her skin pasty white and pale underneath her tee shirt. Her she was curled protectively around Sophie, arms holding her tight to her chest.
Damon rushed forward and pulled the padlocked door off the cage. It came off readily enough, even though the metal groaned , and Damon crawled in, reaching for Sophie first.
Sophie had a death grip on Deanna, her arms wrapped around her waist, and Deanna's arms were pinned over and around Sophie, trying to keep her from touching any of the cold metal. It was effort to detangle the two girls from each other, and when Sophie's arms came loose, she blinked awake slowly, looking around with a weak and confused gaze.
"Sophie?" Damon asked, leaning down to her level, holding her up. "Sophie can you hear me?"
"D'mn?" she whispered, shivering so hard Damon was scared she was going to go into convulsions.
"Yeah, sweets. Can you stand for me. Just for a minute. I have to get Deanna. Stand right there." He let go over her, and she stood, swaying on her feet. Damon wasn't sure she was actually paying attention, or if she was still processing, but he wasn't going to find out. Before Sophie could decide to not stay on her feet, Damon reached back in for Deanna.
Deanna was unconscious, and her breath was far too shallow. Damon could barely hear her heartbeat, and had to listen carefully to find it. He quickly pulled her into his arms, wrapped his jacket around the freezing girl, and then went back for Sophie.
"Sophie. Look at me!"
At the direct order, Sophie raised her head to look at him, sluggish and confused. Damon felt horrible for yelling at her, but knew it had to be done to save her life. "Soph, I want you to crawl up on my back. I have to carry Deanna, so you have to hold on tight. Got it?"
It took some maneuvering, but Damon finally got Sophie up on his back, more or less holding on by herself, and then picked up Deanna. Using his vampire speed, he ran back out to the truck, and piled both girls into the cab next to him. He turned the heater on full blast, and turned down the highway, praying to a God he didn't actually believe in that they were going to be okay.
O~O~O
She was warm.
That was the first thing her sluggish and surprised mind was able to process.
The second thing she noticed was soft quiet voices somewhere to her left. Something small and warm wiggled against her side.
Deanna cracked her eyes open, and was glad to see the room was dim. She didn't think she couldn't handle the light just then. She craned her neck to the side, and saw Sophie curled up against her side. Damon was sitting in chair next to her, talking quietly to the young girl.
Damon was the first to notice she was awake, and he gave her a smile. From the look he gave her, she had a feeling he knew she'd been awake...or almost awake for a long time.
"Welcome back to the land of the living, D."
Sophie turned around at that, and when she saw Deanna's eyes were open, pounced on her.
"Deanna!" she cried out, ignoring Deanna's grunt as she pushed all the air out of her. She wrapped her arms around her neck. Deanna choked slightly, but let her arms come up to encircle the young girl.
"Hey, Soph. You okay?"
"I'm okay." Sophie said, pulling away from Deanna. She looked at her with a gaze that Deanna found her self thinking was far too old for a five year old. "I was scared you weren't going to wake up...again. But Damon promised you would."
"He did, did he?"
"Yep! And he was right! Damon always keeps his promises. He told me so."
Deanna looked up at Damon, and he stood up, stretching kinks out of his back before looking down at Sophie. "And what did you promise me, Sophie?" he asked gently.
Sophie sighed, and then looked at Deanna. "I promised I'd go to bed like a good girl when you woke up." She looked around the room and then leaned forward to whisper conspiratorially. "I'm supposed to be in bed, but Damon let me stay up. Shh."
Deanna found a smile for her, honestly amused. Sophie could never fail to make her smile. "Well then you'd better do what you promised. Damon might not let you stay up so late next time."
Sophie gave her one more hug and then scampered from the room. Damon followed, leaving Deanna alone in the darkness.
Deanna pushed herself to a sitting position, pulling the blankets on the bed up with her and wrapping them around her shoulders. She looked around the hospital room in curiosity, blinking against the gloom. She was only hooked up to an IV, all of the other machines sitting quietly in the corner. Sitting on the floor next to the window was the pink duffel bag she kept in her truck for emergencies. On top of it sat an extra pair of socks and a few books. Her hairbrush sat on the table next to her, and after stretching out her stiff arms, she reached for it and began brushing out her hair.
Damon walked back in as she was finishing her last strokes, already exhausted from the brief bit of activity. He came and sat back down in the chair he'd been sitting in before, and propped his feet up on the edge of her bed.
"How long have I been out?" she asked. Her throat was scratchy, and Damon seemed to hear that. He reached over to pour her a glass of water.
"A little over twenty-four hours. You're...folks were here, but the hospital sent them home. They should be back sometime tomorrow morning." he said, handing her the glass. She managed to drain most of it before Damon took it away and set it within easy reach on the side table.
"But they let you stay?"
"So I snuck back in. Sue me. I told Sophie I'd keep an eye on you. And like she said, I keep my promises."
Deanna rolled her eyes at him. "I don't need a babysitter, you know." She looked over at him shyly. "But...thanks. I do appreciate it."
Damon nodded, "I guess I kinda owed you one." He cleared his throat and then raked his fingers through his hair. "I'm...uh...not good with the whole gratitude thing. But I just want to say...thank you. For keeping Sophie safe and all. The doctors said that if you hadn't given up your sweatshirt for her, she would have died. As it was you almost did, and uh...I I just wanted you to know I appreciate it."
"That looked painful." Deanna snarked.
Damon smirked at her. "Yeah. Don't make me do it again. I don't know if I can handle it."
"Don't worry about it. I kept her safe, you saved my life. We'll call it even."
"Deal." Damon said, offering her a smile.
Deanna grinned back at him, and then started to pick at her cuticles. "I care about her too, you know. She's a good kid, and with her mom and Valerie being best friends, she's kinda become the little sister I never had, you know."
Damon nodded. "Yeah. I know. She's told me time and time again that you're her pretend big sister. She adores you."
Deanna glanced over at him when it seemed he wasn't going to offer any more, and asked, "What happened?"
Damon folded his hands between his knees and looked up at her. "Do you want the official police story...that you're gonna have to back up...or do you want the truth?"
"Official story." Deanna said, leaning back against the pile of blankets.
Damon nodded. "You were driving around downtown, and had stopped for coffee. You saw a man wrestle Sophie into a motel room, and decided to follow. He kidnapped both of you and locked you in a cage and left you two to the elements. He drove your truck, and I was driving into town when I saw it, noticed it was yours, and decided to investigate."
"And how do you and I know each other?" Deanna asked. "I can't exactly say that you've been sneaking into Sophie's bedroom off and on for the last year or so, and that you and I met because you decided to threaten me about her."
"I told them we met at your high school. I'm one of the student's older brothers."
"And they bought that? What if they decide to look into the school records and see that there is no Damon Salvatore?" Deanna asked. "And how am I going to describe the drifter that kidnapped us? I didn't actually see anyone."
Damon smirked. "I'm very persuasive. They won't look into any records. Besides, the doctors found traces of chloroform in your system. It's okay if you are a little hazy on the details."
Deanna shook her head. "Do we know what actually happened?"
"Yeah."
"You gonna tell me?"
Damon sighed. He hesitated for a moment, and it was the first time Deanna had ever seen him not look calm and collected; the first time he'd seen him not look confident and sure of himself. She could tell he was trying to decide what to tell her, and what to keep from her. After what seemed like forever, Damon took a deep breath and finally started speaking. "I'm not a good person, D. That part you know."
"I thought we'd decided you weren't a person, period." Deanna said. When Damon looked up, she gave him a soft, encouraging smile. He smiled tentatively back.
"True. But I'm not a good...thing, either. I've made quite a few enemies." Damon and Deanna sat in the silence before Damon continued, not even looking her in the eye.
"I have a brother, D. He's...he's a good man. But his way of life is so different from the rest of my kind. It makes others...uncomfortable. And because he is so different, he brings a lot of trouble his way. He stands up for himself and what he believes in, the moron." Deanna snorted at him, and he saw her smiling. "What?"
"Only you would say that being a good person made said person a moron."
"Do you want to hear this or not?" Damon snapped, even though he was smiling slightly too. Deanna held up her hands in surrender, and Damon continued.
"Stefan makes other's of my kind uncomfortable, especially when he hurts others trying to keep the humans safe." He looked up, and saw Deanna watching him patiently. "In 1994 Stefan, killed one of us, to keep him from killing an entire school full of children. Now, the guy, Micah, he attacked Stefan first. Stefan was just going to talk, but he ended up killing him." Deanna's eyes widened, and Damon continued. "Because he did that, a contract was put out on his head. I stopped it, but doing that I killed someone named Carter. Carter had a mate. And my kind...we mate for life."
Deanna nodded her understanding. "It was his mate who kidnapped us?"
"Yeah." Damon breathed. "Her name was Amy."
"Was?"
Damon looked at her square on, and Deanna could see the protective danger lurking in his eyes. "Was. Past tense. She attacked Sophie. And she kidnapped you. I wasn't going to put up with that."
"I didn't know you cared so much." Deanna said, looking at him with a raised eyebrow. "That just makes me all warm and fuzzy inside."
Damon poked her lightly in the leg. "You still haven't outlived your usefulness. And so help me, I actually kinda like you."
"I'm touched." Deanna said sarcastically, smirking at him. Damon rolled his eyes at her.
"You should be." Damon said, and when Deanna met his gaze, she could tell it wasn't sarcasm behind his words. He was serious.
"So this Amy chick kidnapped us, why?"
Damon shrugged. "An eye for an eye. She could tell I cared about Sophie, and so took her. And then I guess she didn't hear you screaming at me, but she did see you go in to see me that day, and my scent was all around you and your house since I'd been the night before. I guess she just assumed you were on the same level as Sophie. No offense, but you're not even close."
"None taken." Deanna said. When Damon stayed silent, she spoke again. "What is it about her that makes you want to protect her? Out of everyone, why her?"
Damon shook his head. "If I knew, I'd tell you. She's just...different. I just know I don't want anything to happen to her. Ever. She's just...mine."
"You can't protect her forever, Damon." Deanna said gently. "Not if the things in the dark decide they want her bad enough. No one can protect her if it comes to that."
"I can try." Damon said, eyes flashing with determined fire.
Deanna nodded, and then looked down at her hands. She fiddled with them a little, and then started picking at her cuticles. "I am sorry I flipped out on you about the journal. It's just...I used to have a family, and that's the only thing I have of them, you know?"
Damon looked up at her, and she took a deep breath. "It's still my story, but...I know about the things in the dark because, my dad? He hunts those kinds of things. He's looking for the thing that killed my mom. The night my house caught on fire, back in '82? A demon started it. I don't know why, and neither does Dean. He's the one I talk to."
"How is that? You said they thought you were dead."
Deanna smiled warily. "Have you ever heard of 'twin telepathy'?"
"Yeah." Damon said. "It's supposed to be an urban legend...that twins can communicate when they aren't actually talking. It's not supposed to be real."
"You of all people should know that there are lots of things that aren't supposed to be real." Deanna said with a smirk.
"Are you telling me, that you and your wayward twin have been communicating all these years? With your mind?" Damon asked incredulously.
"I have these dreams. And I didn't think they were real for the longest time. But...I started looking into some of the details...and everything that the Dean in my dreams told me, was true in real life. I found evidence of my family. That journal...is all the work I've done on it."
"You're tracking them." Damon said.
Deanna nodded. "My father, John? He's a hunter. And he's been training my brothers since my mom was killed."
"Your father is John Winchester?" Damon asked.
"You know him?" Deanna sat up, looking at his hopefully.
"No." Damon said, watching the hope deflate from Deanna's eyes. "By reputation only. I didn't even think you were part of the same family. He's very good at what he does."
"Yeah?" Deanna asked, pride drifting into his eyes.
"Yeah." Damon said, nodding slightly. He didn't tell her he knew about him because he killed things like Damon. That was a conversation he didn't really want to have with the girl who had saved Sophie's life. Not this time. "So why aren't you with them? Why are you still in this crappy town?"
Deanna shrugged. "They think I'm dead. And nothing I say to Dean will make him believe me. He thinks I'm a figment of his imagination. Which, yeah, okay. But he won't even look into anything I tell him. And he won't give me information to get in touch with him. Everything I've found, I've fought for tooth and nail."
"That's why you flipped out."
"Everything that Dean learns, he teaches to me. Every time they move, or Sammy does something, or Dad accomplishes something...or Dean, he tells me. I don't know why, but I don't question it. And everything he tells me, goes into that book. When I'm old enough, I'm going to track them down. One day I'm going to prove to him I'm not dead."
"You're going to hunt with them?"
"They're hunters, Damon." Deanna said. "If I have to become a hunter too, fine. I just want my family back. That's all I've ever wanted." Deanna yawned there at the end, and Damon could see she was exhausted. "I don't think I'm asking for too much." Her eyes started to drift close.
"Go to sleep." Damon said softly, using the voice Stefan used to like when they were children. "You've been through a lot."
"I'm always gonna watch out for her." Deanna mumbled sleepily into the thin pillows of the hospital bed. "She's mine just as much as she is yours."
Damon was silent, and watched as she drifted off into sleep. It was only then that he crept out of her room and walked down the hallway.
When Deanna woke up later, Sophie was curled up against her side again, her parents and Valerie and Danny were talking quietly in the corner and the pale light of dawn was filtering across the floor.
Damon was gone...as if he'd never even been there in the first place, and when Deanna asked about him, no one even remembered seeing him since he'd talked to the police early on when he'd brought Deanna and Sophie in.
Deanna asked Sophie about him, and she just shrugged.
"He'll be back." she said confidently. "He always comes back."
And the thing was...Deanna knew she was right.
Deanna let herself fall asleep that night, in her own bed, to the sounds of the TV downstairs, dreaming dreams of missing brothers, and strange 'not-people'.
And when she woke up, her journal was sitting on her lap, a sticky note stuck to the front.
'There are wolves in the world, D. Look after Sophie and keep her safe. If you are anything like your father, I know she'll be fine. Remember, not all wolves are bad, and not all angels are good. Stay sharp. ~Damon.'
Deanna rolled her eyes, and shoved it inside one of the pockets on the inside cover before getting up to start her day. She had a feeling she hadn't seen the last of Damon Salvatore.
And she was right.
Author's Note: This was so hard, and I'm not sure I'm happy with it. Honestly, this chapter was so hard to write, I felt like I had to forcefully pull the words out of my brain with pliers to leave them in a bloody pile on the ground in front of me to sort through. But it's done...or as done as it's going to be. I'm going to do a chapter for my other story, and give myself a break with this one, and then I'll be back to working on another chapter. I thank everyone for their reviews and their patience. If you guys weren't so supportive, this chapter wouldn't have made it up. So on behalf of Sophie, Deanna and Damon, I just want to say thank you.
And thank you to all of the anonymous reviews. I do appreciate them, even though I can't reply to them and say thank you individually. So I thank you as a whole. :)
Happy reading.