Chapter twenty nine

"I just can't help myself,"- She Likes (Bittersweet Love) by Forever The Sickest Kids

"Okay, this is why we're practicing with blood bags."

Damon had been trying to teach Charlie self-control all week. It wasn't coming easily for her, which was frustrating her. Damon assured her that it's never easy for baby vamps, and that as long as she hadn't wiped towns off of the map, she was already doing better than Stefan. It didn't make her feel any better, though.

"Gah!" she exclaimed, throwing the blood bag across the room so that it exploded against the wall. "I'm so thirsty all the time. And, I swear, I've suddenly become bipolar." She shot her husband a look. "No cracking jokes about me always being bipolar."

"Char," he tried to calm her down. "Your personality is multiplied a hundred times when you become a vampire. Everything's changing drastically, I know, but you'll adjust."

"But what if I don't?" she muttered. Damon had tried to teach her self-control by having her drink a blood bag, slowly, but she always ended up chugging them like they were juice pouches.

"You will," he assured her. "You have forever, Charlie. You'll get the whole vampire thing down, even if it takes a century or two to perfect."

Charlie sighed, her emotions drastically shifting again. Damon assured her that that happened to all vampires, as they struggled to adjust to their new immortality. It was worse with her, though. One minute Charlie would just be regular, normal Charlie. The next she would be a bloodthirsty monster. The next she'd be angry as hell at everybody, especially Damon. then she'd be jumping his bones the next. Now Charlie was starting to become depressed, and this was Damon's least favorite of all of her emotions. He preferred when she was normal, happy Charlie, though horny Charlie would always be his favorite.

"Char," he murmured, pulling her into his arms. Charlie rested her head on his chest and closed her eyes. the one thing that hadn't changed in her while she struggled to adjust to being a vampire, was how much she loved her husband. If anything, that had increased.

"Do you miss me being human?" she whispered suddenly. "Do you miss when you could drink my blood?"

"And have to subconsciously worry about ripping your throat out all the time? Not even a little bit," he told her honestly. He'd miss her blood- it was quite tasty- but he wouldn't miss having to make sure to control himself around her. she was so breakable when she was human. Even now, Charlie still seemed fragile, but she was much more durable than before.

"But I was warm and soft before," she muttered into his shirt.

"You're warm and soft now," he assured her.

"You really don't miss human Charlie?" she asked, hugging him tighter to her, like she was drowning and he was her lifeline.

"Char, you could be Big Bird and I'd still love you," he told her, earning a smile. Slowly, Charlie came out of depression, shifting into…

…horny Charlie.

Charlie slammed Damon onto to the floor and kissed him, hard. Damon was a lot older than her, and could easily take control, but he let Charlie dominate him again. Not only was it hot, but he knew that it made Charlie feel better, to be in control of something.

"Can you two not have sex on the living room floor?"

Charlie instantly pulled away from Damon and smiled sheepishly at her brother-in-law. "I don't know, Stef. I feel like you're asking for too much." Damon smirked and pulled his wife up off of the ground.

Stefan rolled his eyes, but took in the mess Charlie had made with the blood bags. "I take it that the self-control sessions aren't going too well?" he asked, his eyes going to Charlie.

"She's getting better," Damon said encouragingly, throwing an arm around Charlie's shoulders. Charlie was frowning though, going back into one of her depressed moods.

"You know, I can take you hunting with me. you might get the hang of it better if you build up to human blood," Stefan offered thoughtfully.

Damon snorted. "No," he said. His wife would not become an animal feeding freak like his little brother.

"Actually," Charlie said, slowly smiling. "That sounds like a good idea."

"What?" Damon asked her disbelievingly. "You want to drink animal blood?"

"Not permanently," she said quickly. "But it might be easier for me if I start with animal blood and work up to human blood."

Damon sighed and chose to stop arguing. They were both right, and Damon really wanted Charlie to get a handle on her self-control. Plus, she would get a chance to get out of the house, to go hunting with Stefan. Since Charlie was "dead," Damon hadn't allowed her to leave the house yet. She was going stir crazy.

"Fine, whatever you want to do," he said, and she grinned.

"Great, let's go," Charlie said cheerfully, shifting to happy. She grabbed Stefan's arm and practically dragged him out the door in her excitement to get out of the boarding house.

"You want me to kill a cute little bunny rabbit?"

Charlie glared at her brother-in-law and crossed her arms over her chest. they were in the middle of the woods, as it finally occurred to Charlie what she would be eating.

"What do you think we would be hunting?" Stefan asked, slightly amused.

"I don't know, definitely not something cute and adorable!" she exclaimed, still defiant to kill a little bunny.

Stefan chuckled slightly. "What's so funny?" she snapped, annoyed.

"You're just… you're a little erratic, Charlie. It's kind of funny," he said.

She glowered at him. "Damon already called me his 'crazy, bipolar, vampire wife,'" she muttered.

"All of which you are." Charlie glared at him.

"I'm not killing bunnies, Stefan. End of story," she said stubbornly. Unfortunately, her stubbornness was also amplified when she became a vampire.

"Fine, how about deer?" he offered.

"I'm not killing Bambi or Bambi's mother," she told him, wary.

"How about Bambi's dad?" Stefan asked her.

She bit her lip. "I don't know…"

Stefan sighed, but smiled slightly at her. "The problem is you're too compassionate."

She frowned at him. "I wasn't aware that that's a problem."

"It's not. Damon loves that about you, and so do I. but you have to learn control, Charlie, because if you don't, you'll be ripping out throats. And the best way to learn is to work your way up the food chain. We'll hunt deer, and maybe, if we're lucky, we'll catch a carnivore. They taste the most like humans because they're predators," Stefan told her kindly.

Charlie sighed but nodded. She knew that he was right. "I'm still not killing Bambi's family," she muttered as they ran deeper into the woods.

"How did hunting go? Did the all the furry animals of the wilderness rise up against you two?"

"Ha-ha. And here I thought that I married you for your nice ass. It turns out you're funny too. How did I get so lucky?" Charlie asked sarcastically, falling into Damon's lap.

"I don't know, you just are," he retorted, before kissing her. Damon's nose wrinkled and he pulled away.

"You taste like squirrels," he told her distastefully.

She smirked at him. "Well, I found them very tasty," she retorted, when, in reality, Charlie found animal blood a poor substitute for human blood. then she beamed when she remembered what had happened during her and Stefan's hunting trip.

"Guess what?" she asked, excited.

"What?" Damon asked, raising an eyebrow.

"We ran across a hiker while we were hunting and I didn't kill him!" she exclaimed, proud of herself. It wasn't that hard actually, controlling herself. The sound of the human's heart pumping blood through his body made her mouth water and her fangs come out, but Charlie knew that killing was wrong and she couldn't even bring herself to think about killing. She let Stefan pull her away without another thought. Charlie's compassion for human life would save her humanity, she knew that now.

"That's great," Damon said, grinning. He was actually very proud of Charlie, and was happy for her. "How about we go out to celebrate?"

Charlie's smile instantly fell from her lips. "I thought that I was supposed to be dead?" she asked, confused.

"Yet I haven't gotten one casserole," Damon retorted. "We'll go to a bar a few towns over."

"You think I'm ready?" she asked, gnawing on her lip.

He nodded honestly. "If it becomes too much, I'll get you out of there before you can do any damage," Damon promised. "Now go get ready, and wear something pretty."

Charlie stuck her tongue out at him before standing up and running up to her room. she was excited to get out, yet she was terrified to put her new found self-control to the test. She trusted Damon's confidence in her, though. She only wished that she had it too.

"Here, the alcohol will help your thirst," Damon told Charlie, handing her a shot. They sat a bar in a town a few miles away from Mystic Falls.

Charlie did the shot, though she wasn't having nearly as many "eat people" urges as she thought she would. "How are you doing so far?" he asked her, obviously concerned.

"I'm doing good. I'll tell you when I feel the urge to drain our bartender dry," Charlie said with a small smile.

Damon frowned. "Please don't eat him, he's such a tool."

Charlie laughed and kissed her husband. "I don't know, he looks tasty," she teased, finding Damon's jealousy amusing.

Damon frowned at her. "You're not funny," he told her, stealing one of her shots.

"I'm hilarious," she countered, doing more shots. She hadn't had alcohol since she was a teenager, because of her cardiomyopathy. She was excited that she had that freedom back.

Damon frowned, suddenly realizing this. "Let's slow down with the shots, Char. Just because you're a hot vampire now doesn't mean you can't get drunk and get really awful hangovers," he told her, taking her remaining shots away.

Suddenly, a familiar scent hit the air and Damon stiffened. He knew that scent. "He's here," Damon growled, turning around and looking around the bar.

Sure enough, Jason sat in a corner booth, flirting with the waitresses. He met Damon's eyes and stiffened. When he saw Charlie, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Charlie narrowed her eyes at him, knowing that he was the one who had killed her.

"I'll be right back," Damon told his wife, standing up as Jason ran from the bar. Damon walked after him, enjoying the thoughts of ripping his heart out that passed through his mind. Charlie followed her husband, and caught up with him in time to see him pin Jason against a wall in the back alley.

"I killed you!" he choked out, meeting Charlie's gaze, as her husband's hand wrapped around his neck.

"Yeah, thanks for that," she said sarcastically. Despite her compassion for life, she didn't mind Damon killing Jason. The werewolf had killed her, so it was only fair that Damon return the favor.

Jason's eyes widened. "You're a vampire," he whispered, not realizing that those were his last words.

Damon smirked at Jason before plunging his hand into his chest and tearing his heart out. He dropped his heart to the ground, next to Jason's body. Damon wiped his hand clean on Jason's shirt then turned to Charlie.

"Well, now that's taken care of," he said, throwing an arm around his wife's shoulders.

"We should renew our vows," Charlie murmured as they walked back to the bar.

Damon smirked. "I wouldn't mind that," he told her, before kissing the top of her head.

"In the Bahamas," she added.

"Charlie, we have forever. We can renew our vows as many times as you want," Damon told her, before pulling her in for a kiss.

Damon was right. He and Charlie had forever now, and she couldn't wait to start it.

The end

A/N: I'm going to have a sweet, fluffy epilogue, just so you guys know.

Thanks to: Partiq, SomebodyWhoCares, Lady Syndra, Be My Baby, KimmyWSmith, sofiecanwrite, and LiliannaKay2011 for reviewing!

Review!

~Abby :)