Chapter twelve

"I know I'm gonna fall down,"- Down by Jason Walker

Kingston, New York

Seven months ago

Damon had been avoiding Charlie ever since he'd admitted his love for her. it hurt Charlie, that the first time she ever told a guy that she loved him, he ran away. But she wouldn't let Damon get away, just because he was afraid to feel anything real.

"You're something else, you know that?" Charlie glared at Damon, when she walked into a bar, to find him drinking. Damon had become a sad, pitiful day drunk.

"Enlighten me, Charlie," Damon said, not drunk, only buzzed.

"I tell you that I love you, you say it back- even though I told you that you didn't have to- and then you avoid me. who the bloody hell does that?" Charlie said, earning looks from the other sad day drunks.

"You don't know anything, Charlie," Damon just shook his head at her, and her glare intensified.

"Oh, I'd beg to differ. I know that you do love me, I'm sure of it. But you're so used to not being loved back, you're so scared of being hurt, you refuse to actually face your feelings. You're so god damn scared of feeling something other than lust, something deep and meaningful, you're just going to let me get away," Charlie said.

Damon turned his icy blue eyes on her. "You don't want me to love you, Charlie. Trust me," he deadpanned.

Before Charlie could talk herself out of it, she grabbed Damon by the arm and dragged him out of the bar. She pulled him down an empty alley. She finally let go off his arm, and turned to face him, a fierce look in her eyes. Damon just raised an eyebrow at the small human woman in front of him.

"I have a heart disease," she blurted out.

"I'm a vampire," he countered seconds after she blurted out her own secret.

The sun peeked out from behind the curtains, and shone down on Charlie's face. She slowly woke up, and groaned softly. As the fog of sleep slowly left her brain, she flipped onto her side, to find her sleeping husband next to her.

Charlie smiled softly, and kissed him gently. A mischievous smirk formed on her lips, and she kissed Damon again, this time harder. She crawled on top of him, and ran her fingers through his black hair, her lips never leaving his.

With a low growl, Damon flipped them over, and kissed his wife harder. Charlie giggled into his mouth, and wrapped her arms around his neck. she bit gently down on his lip, as his hand ventured up her thigh, and under her shirt.

"Charlie- oh, I'm so sorry!"

The couple broke apart, and Damon glowered at the doppelganger standing in the doorway. "Damn it, Elena," he grumbled, getting off of his wife.

Charlie smile apologetically at Elena. "It's okay, what do you need?" she asked kindly.

"I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out with Bonnie, Caroline, and me today," Elena asked, and Charlie beamed.

"Of course! Just give me time to get ready," she said excitedly, before getting out of bed. Elena left the room, as Charlie ran to her dresser.

"Does your new BFF know about your heart defect?" Damon asked from the bed.

Charlie didn't take her eyes off of clothes in her hands. "No, she doesn't, and I wish to keep it that way," she said, before holding up a navy dress and a black skirt and top.

"Which one?" she asked him.

"I thought that we had an understanding- I'm not the person to ask for fashion advice," Damon told her.

Charlie glowered, before marching out of their room, and downstairs. Elena was in the kitchen with Stefan. "Which one, Elena?" she asked, holding out the outfits.

"Um… the skirt," she told Charlie.

She smiled. "Thank you," she told her new friend, before walking back up to her room.

She set her outfit on the bed, where Damon still lay. Then she started unbuttoning her shirt, and walking towards the bathroom. "I'm going to take a shower," she announced. Charlie threw Damon a mischievous grin, before adding, "You're welcome to join me."

Damon pulled Charlie into the bathroom, and ripped her shirt off, before kissing her fiercely. Charlie just giggled in response, kissing her husband back, before slamming the door shut behind them.

Kingston, New York

Seven months ago

"Excuse me?" Charlie said, her eyes wide.

"You have a heart disease?" Damon asked, looking so concerned it would've melted Charlie's heart at any other moment. But he had just confessed to being a supernatural creature.

"Vampires aren't real! You're insane!" Charlie exclaimed, backing away from him.

Damon sighed. "I have to say Charlie, your reaction is a tad cliché."

Charlie just turned and ran from him. suddenly, Damon blocked her path. "H-how did you-?" Charlie stuttered, and Damon suddenly heard it. Her heartbeat was irregular. She really did have a heart disease.

"I'm a vampire, Charlie," he repeated.

Charlie's hazel eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she passed out.

"Elena, why do you have to cover my eyes?" Charlie asked, slightly amused, as Elena walked them into her house.

"We have a surprise for you," Elena smirked.

Elena removed her hands, and Charlie saw a room full of decorations. There were presents and booze, and Caroline and Bonnie was with them. Caroline looked very smug with herself.

"What is this?" Charlie asked.

"You said that you never had a bachelorette party, so we decided to change that," Bonnie said, smiling.

Charlie was touched. She smiled softy at her new friends. "You didn't have to do this," she said honestly.

"We wanted to," Elena told her.

"I wanted to get you a male stripper, but they wouldn't let me," Caroline told her, and Charlie laughed.

"It's fine. If Damon found out, he'd rip the stripper's throat out," Charlie told them, still touched by their kindness.

"Come on! Let's get this started," Caroline said cheerfully, before pouring four glasses of shots.

"To Charlie and Damon!" she toasted, passing out the shots.

Charlie bit her lip when Caroline gave her a shot. She couldn't drink because of her cardiomyopathy, but she didn't want to ruin the party with her bad news. So Charlie just threw her drink over her shoulder.

"Do you want to open your presents?" Bonnie asked after a few drinks, all of which Charlie pretended to drink.

Charlie nodded eagerly, and a rectangular box with pink wrapping was pushed into her hands. "It's from me," Caroline told her.

Charlie tore it open, and pulled out very racy red and black lingerie. She threw her head back and laughed. "Damon's gonna like this," she told her friends.

Another box was pushed into her hands, this one from Elena. She ripped it open, to reveal lacy and sensual lavender lingerie. "I'm sensing a pattern here," Charlie said, after she opened yet another present full of lingerie.

Stefan joined his brother in the living room. They hadn't talked since Charlie's secret was revealed. "I'm sorry," he blurted out to his older brother.

Damon raised his eyebrows. "For what?" he asked, pouring himself another drink.

"That Charlie's dying," Stefan said, and Damon flinched slightly. It was true though. No matter how well she seemed to be, how she played her disease off, Charlie was dying. If she didn't get a transplant soon, her heart would stop beating.

"She won't let me do anything," Damon said quietly. "She won't let me compel her heart, she won't let me change her into a vampire- I'm just supposed to act like everything's fine. I love her so god damn much, but she's in denial. A part of me thinks that she's given up all hope, but another part thinks that it really hasn't hit her. Charlie really doesn't think that she's going to die."

"Why did you come back, Damon? Charlie should've stayed in New York- it would've been better for her- yet you still came. Why?" Stefan asked.

Damon sighed. "Charlie is really, really stubborn."

Kingston, New York

2 weeks ago

Charlie walked into her small living room, to hear her husband listening to a voicemail. She walked past him, a basket full of laundry in her arms, and towards their bedroom. Then she heard the message.

"It's Elena. I don't expect anything from you, but I just thought you should know that Stefan was attacked a few days ago. He almost died. He's okay now, though. Anyway, I just thought you should know."

Elena was Katherine's doppelganger, and Stefan's girlfriend. Stefan was Damon's brother.

"What happened to Stefan?" Charlie asked her husband, her eyebrows furrowed.

Damon turned around to see his wife. He hadn't realized that she was there. "It seems that he was attacked," he answered casually.

"Well, aren't you going to go back home? Make sure that he's okay?" Charlie demanded, frowning.

A part of Damon wanted to- the only person in the world who got to mess with Stefan was him. but they wouldn't want him back, and he couldn't leave Charlie. "I don't think so, Char," he answered, walking into the kitchen.

"What?" Charlie exclaimed, dropping the laundry on the floor, and following him. "He's your brother, Damon! you have to go!"

Damon sighed. Sometimes he wished that Charlie wasn't nearly as stubborn as she was. "I can't leave you, Charlie. Besides, they wouldn't want me there."

"I'll go with you then. I really want to meet Stefan," Charlie said.

"No, you won't," Damon practically growled. Traveling long distances was terrible for her. Charlie might as well chug a forty ounce, and smoke a pack of cigarettes.

"He's your brother, Damon," Charlie repeated. "If it was the other way around, Stefan would go to you."

Would he, though? Damon sighed, Charlie wasn't going to stop arguing with him until he agreed to go. "Fine, I'll go check up on him," he gave in.

Charlie beamed. "Great, I'll help you pack."

Stefan frowned slightly at his brother, just before Damon's cellphone went off. Damon checked the caller ID, to see that it was his wife.

"Hey babe," he said, turning away from his brother.

"Hi, what are you doing?" Charlie asked him.

"Nothing much," he told her, already pushing his conversation with Stefan out of his mind. "You?"

"The girls surprised me with a bachelorette party," Charlie said excitedly. Damon raised his eyebrows. That was one marriage experience that Charlie had missed out on.

"I hoping that there were no strippers there," he said casually, and Charlie laughed.

"Don't worry too much about that. I would never leave my sexy vampire husband for a stripper- but ours did look pretty good in a G-string," Charlie teased.

"Ha, ha. I'm laughing on the inside," he said sarcastically.

"You're going to love my presents though," Charlie told him.

"Ooh, what'd you get?" Damon asked.

"Lingerie."

"Is that all?" Damon asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes. I now have more lingerie than Victoria's Secret," Charlie said, though she wasn't complaining. Damon wasn't either.

"Well, you should come home and model some for me," Damon smirked.

"As long as you don't rip them off of me. I really like them, Damon. I have no doubt that you will too. They leave absolutely nothing to the imagination," Charlie said, and Damon's smirk grew.

"I can't wait. Get home soon," he said.

"I'll be home in less than ten minutes, and then we can start our fashion show. I love you," she told him.

"I love you too," he said, before hanging up.

Damon walked back into the living room, impatiently waiting for his wife to get home. He frowned when he saw his brother lying face down on the couch. "Stefan?" he called.

When Stefan didn't move, Damon walked closer to him. his eyes widened when he saw an arrow sticking out of his back.

"Stefan!" he exclaimed, and ripped the arrow out of his back.

Damon just had time to flip his brother over and see that he was still alive, before a stake was shoved through his back, just missing his heart.

Damon groaned, and fell to the floor. He tried to get a glimpse of his attacker, but then he was injected with something, and everything went black.

A/N: thank you to: vdemily, Be My Baby, KimmyWSmith, jacquline, Marina164509, and SomebodyWhoCares for reviewing!

Reviews are inspiring ;)

~Abby :)