Chapter fourteen

"I have loved you from the start,"- Fall For You by Secondhand Serenade

Charlie thrashed in her sleep, drenched in sweat from her nightmare. Damon awoke from his sleep when Charlie kicked him in the kidney. He was instantly alert, as his wife let out a scream.

"Charlie, wake up!" Damon shook her awake, and she let out a gasp, before her hazel eyes fluttered open.

"wha…" she mumbled, as Damon listened to the irregular beating of her heart. He pulled Charlie into his arms, and soothingly rubbed her back, trying to calm her down.

"You had another nightmare, Char," he told his wife casually, as she hugged him almost subconsciously.

It had been three days since the attack, and Charlie had been having nightmares every single night since. White-hot rage ran through Damon's veins, whenever he thought about the vampire and werewolf, who were about to rape her. he only wished that he had had time to properly torture them, before killing them.

She still smelled like them, to him. he could still see the bruises on her arms and shoulders where they had grabbed her roughly. Damon gritted his teeth at the thought of those two touching his wife, his Charlie. His fingers brushed the spot on her neck, where the vampire had bit her. the idea of another vampire biting her, drinking her blood, just made Damon's anger that much more worse.

"I… I can still feel his fangs in my neck," Charlie mumbled into Damon's chest suddenly. "I can't stop thinking about it."

Damon's grip on her tightened for a millisecond, before he thought better and released her before he hurt her. he didn't want to hurt Charlie any more than she had already been hurt- physically and mentally. She was scarred by the whole experience, her nightmares proved that. And Damon didn't even want to know how this would affect her condition. Oh, if he could only bring those three bastards back from the dead…

"I want you to bite me," Charlie said suddenly, looking up at her husband with a determined gaze.

"What?" he asked, frowning down at her. no, it wouldn't help Charlie's heart condition at all.

"Please, love. If you bite me, then…" she didn't finish her sentence, but Damon knew what she wanted to say. Then I wouldn't think about him biting me, only you. She wanted to replace that horrific memory with him.

Damon considered it, and really wanted to. It would be like claiming her as his again. Charlie would be marked as his. And he would be gentle, he wouldn't take too much blood. It would be good for both of them.

Damon kissed Charlie softly on the lips, before kissing down her jaw to her neck. he stopped at her jugular, and felt her pulse beneath his lips. Gently, Damon kissed her neck, and Charlie sighed softly. Her fingers ran through his hair, as she felt his fangs scrape against her neck.

With a hiss of pain from Charlie, Damon bit down into her skin. He removed his fangs quickly, as to not hurt her any more than necessary. She sighed in pleasure, as he gently sucked her blood. Damon's lips moved against the bite mark, and it was as if he was just kissing her neck. after Damon figured he had taken enough, he pulled away and licked the remaining blood from the bite.

Damon gave Charlie enough blood to stop the bleeding, but wanted her to be marked by him. he wiped his bloody lips, and then kissed his wife, before pulling her even closer to him.

"Thank you," she sighed, closing her eyes.

Damon smirked slightly, and kissed her forehead. "You don't need to thank me for biting you, Char. I'll bite you whenever you want," he said lightly.

Charlie just smiled slightly in response, before falling asleep in his arms. That was the first time since the attack that she didn't wake up screaming.

"You really should be taking it easy, Charlotte."

"Charlie," she corrected the middle aged doctor, as he finished giving her a checkup. She was alone at the hospital, since Damon was now obsessed with finding out that their attackers were and why they wanted him and Stefan dead. He was out doing some digging on the werewolves he had found earlier that week, but would be picking her up.

"Charlie," Doctor Woods said. "You're putting too much stress on your heart. it's a strange occurrence that your symptoms don't line up with how serious your cardiomyopathy is, but don't let that make you think that that isn't there."

Not an occurrence, just vampire blood, Charlie thought. "Any news about my heart transplant?" she asked.

The middle aged woman sighed. "About that… Miss Salvatore-"

"Missus Salvatore," she corrected again.

"Missus Salvatore, I'm afraid that your condition is worsening faster and more drastically than we had hoped," she told Charlie with a sympathetic look.

"Are you saying that I won't live long enough to have the transplant?" Charlie's breath caught in her throat.

"No, I'm not," Doctor Woods said quickly. "I'm saying that the best thing for you would be to stay at the hospital, so that you can be properly observed-"

"I'm not living in a hospital," Charlie said shortly, in a voice that made it clear that her decision wasn't up for discussion.

Doctor Woods sighed. "Fine, it was merely a suggestion. But if you choose to live outside of the hospital, you need to relax. No exciting or stressful situations. You need relaxation and rest. Get that husband of yours to give you a massage." The doctor smiled slightly.

Charlie smiled slightly, before frowning. "Does this mean that I can't have sex anymore?" she asked, disappointed.

The doctor chuckled at Charlie's bluntness. "If you take things slow and don't have sex every single day, I don't see why you can't."

Charlie smiled, before standing up. "Thanks Doctor," she said kindly, before leaving.

She was glad that she could still have sex, because she needed it. When Damon had bitten her that morning, it made her stop thinking about Erik biting her. she assumed that the same would work having sex with Damon, to forget that she was almost raped. Besides, Damon needed a good distraction.

He thought that he was hiding his rage from her, but Charlie knew her husband too well. She was sure that she still smelled like Erik and Dmitri to him, and that was causing his vampire possessiveness of her to rear its head. Charlie was sure that both of them just needed some great sex.

Charlie hummed to herself as she waited for Damon to pick her up. She played with her wedding ring as she sat on a bench outside of the hospital. It was a nice day- the sun was out, and the sky was a bright blue.

"Hey, Married."

Charlie frowned. That voice was vaguely familiar. She looked up to see the pitiful day drunk Jason smirking down at her. "Jason, right?" she asked.

Jason placed a hand over his heart and feigned hurt. She offered him a half smile, and he sat down next to her. "What are you doing here, Married?" he asked.

Charlie wasn't going to tell the sad day drunk about her heart disease, so she lied. "I have a friend in here. She broke a few bones, nothing serious. Now I'm waiting for my husband to pick me up."

She was hoping that Jason would take the hint and leave. "You don't need to drop hints about your husband, Married. I'm above hitting on married chicks. But if you wanted to ditch that loser husband of yours, that's different…" he smirked slowly at her.

Charlie frowned at him. "I wouldn't get my hopes up. My loser husband is pretty good in bed," she said jokingly, though it was true. Damon was amazing in bed.

"Not as good as me, I bet," he whispered in her ear, and Charlie jumped up. The whole situation just went from innocent flirting to downright creepy.

As if hearing her prayers, Damon's Camaro pulled up in front of the hospital at that moment. Charlie hurriedly ran to it, not bothering to say goodbye to Jason. But that didn't stop him.

"See you around, Married," Jason called to her, giving Damon a challenging smirk. Then he walked back into the hospital.

Charlie got into the passenger seat, and took a deep breath. She had to relax, or the doctor was going to force her to live in the hospital. She gave Damon a sweet, chaste peck on the lips, as he put the car in drive.

"Who was that guy?" Damon asked with fake casualness. Charlie saw the jealousy in his eyes clear as day.

"The sad, pitiful day drunk from the Grill a few days ago. No big deal," she played off. she didn't mention how creepy he had gotten before Damon had shown up, or else she would no doubt find his obituary in the paper in the next few days.

Charlie's eyes wandered over to her husband, and her breath caught in her throat when she saw blood on his hands and shirt. "What happened?" she asked, instantly concerned.

Damon looked down at the blood in his hands, and shrugged. "The werewolves I found didn't have anything to do with the attack," he said.

"Did you kill them?" Charlie asked with a slight frown.

Damon raised an eyebrow at his wife. "I had to, Char. If I didn't, they would've come after me, and then they would've tried to hurt you-" Damon suddenly gripped the steering wheel so hard, his knuckles turned white.

Damon took a deep breath, and his grip relaxed. "I had to torture them into giving up some information, they were already half dead."

Charlie nodded, still finding his worry and concern over her safety sweet and adorable. They drove in silence for the next few minutes. Damon finally broke it when they pulled in front of the boarding house. "You know that I'll never let anything happen to you, right?" he asked her in a soft tone.

Charlie smiled softly, though he couldn't promise that. No one could. Still it was sweet, and so far, he had kept his promise- besides her cardiomyopathy, though that was nobody's fault. Looking into Damon's icy blue eyes, it suddenly occurred to Charlie that Damon felt guilty, over what had happened to her, the night of the attack. He also felt guilty for the nightmares that had plagued her every night since.

Charlie kissed her husband fiercely, wanting to kiss away his guilt. It wasn't his fault. The only people at fault were their attackers, and now they were burning in hell- where they belonged. Damon kissed her back, but was hesitant at first.

With a sigh, Charlie pulled away. Suddenly, an idea came to her, and she smirked mischievously at her husband, before getting out of the car. Damon raised his eyebrows at her retreating figure, and slowly followed her inside of the boarding house.

Charlie grinned at Elena and Stefan, who were sitting on the couch, and waved at them, before running up the stairs to her bedroom. She went into the bathroom, and started the bathtub. Then she started stripping off her clothes, the perfect plan of how to relax with Damon forming in her mind.

Damon followed Charlie's path up to their bedroom, bemused at her behavior. But as soon as he walked into their bedroom and saw her clothes scattered across the floor and heard running water, he had an idea of what she was up to.

"Hello love," Charlie grinned, when he walked into the bathroom. Charlie was in the bathtub, her body almost completely covered by suds. He saw the mark he had made that morning on her neck. "Care to join me?"

Damon started stripping instantly, and then joined his wife in the bathtub. She giggled when he pulled her into his arms, her back against his chest. "So, what was with your sudden desire to take a bath?" Damon asked curiously, showering her neck with kisses.

Charlie giggled again. "because bathtub sex is hot." Was all she murmured, before attaching her lips against his in a heated kiss.

Damon growled slightly into her mouth, before kissing her back. Charlie had hoped that, by sleeping with her husband, the horrific memory of Dmitri and Erik would be forgotten. Her hope was fulfilled. Dmitri and Erik were practically erased from her memory, as Damon took her in the bathtub.

A/N: thank you to: Kimmy W. Smith, Be My Baby, jacquline, and SomebodyWhoCares, for reviewing!

Reviews are inspirational ;)

~Abby!