Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries and never will, but I do own Charlene Davis and Megan Swann and any other characters I come up with.

Author's Note: Hope you love the updated version! :D

Stefan was in Jeremy's room, pacing the room as he kept a close on Elena and Charlene's brother, who was fast asleep now. Suddenly he heard a noise from downstairs. With one look towards Jeremy, Stefan left his room and headed downstairs only to see that Megan had entered the house.

"Hey!" he greeted his girlfriend as he went over to her. He stood in front of Megan, "Where's Elena and Charlene?"

"They decided to stay at the hospital."

Stefan looked at her, concerned. "How's Caroline?"

Megan sighed with tears welling in her eyes. "She's not doing well."

Stefan hugged her tightly and Megan wrapped her arms around his neck as she rested her head on his shoulder. She sighed in contentment.

"Just what I've been waiting for." Megan mumbled.

She lifted her head up from his shoulder, leaning up and trying to kiss him. Then, all of the sudden, Stefan furiously dipped her with his face changed and he shoved her on the couch with his fangs bared.

"Demetria." He growled as Megan or who was actually Demetria Pierce stood up and smirked.

"At least one of my sisters fooled one of you brothers," Demetria said with a laugh. Then she found herself being pressed against the nearest wall by the neck. Stefan's hand wasn't wrapped tightly around her neck, so she was able to talk.

"Do you feel better now?" Demi purred with a smirk, running her hands up his chest. "I know I do."

Stefan pushed her against another wall automatically. Before he could do anything to her, someone was opening the door. Demetria twisted his arm around, causing him to let out a cry of pain, then she flipped him on the floor and zoomed away, using her vampire speed. She was completely gone when Damon, Charlene, Megan, and Elena appeared in the house.

"Stefan!" Megan cried out in concern, seeing her boyfriend on the ground. She rushed over to him and helped him to his feet.

"Megan?"

She nodded, gripping his hands. "It's me." She quickly embraced him. He returned the sentiment as she looked up at him, rubbing her hands up and down his back in a soothing motion. "What happened?"

Her boyfriend was about to reply, but Damon got to it first.

"The Pierce sisters happened." He said bitterly.

Megan's mouth dropped in disbelief. "W-what? They're here? In Mystic Falls?"

"Looks like it." Stefan told her quietly.

Megan broke the embrace with Stefan, sharing looks with Elena and Charlene. Shit.

A couple minutes later, Megan was settled on the couch while Elena and Charlene were still standing up as she watched Stefan pace the floor back and forth.

"Pacing isn't going to help, Stef. It's only going to make it worse." Megan informed him softly. If he kept up this pacing, there was going to be holes on the floor.

Stefan stopped, heaving out a sigh as he turned to face the group. "Sorry." He mumbled, earning a small 'it's okay' from Megan.

"Did Demetria say what she and her sisters wanted?" Damon asked, crossing his arms.

"No."

"All of the Pierce sisters certainly know how to make an entrance." Damon commented darkly, earning a confused look from Charlene.

Megan's eyes narrowed at the older Salvatore, wondering what that statement was about. At this point, it didn't matter at the moment. They needed to figure out what they were doing here and why they went after John of all people.

Stefan spoke up again, eyeing Damon, much like Megan was. "Demetria said that one of her sisters fooled one of us. What did she mean by that?"

Damon avoided eye contact with Charlene, which was a red flag immediately for Megan, and she had a feeling whatever came out of his mouth next wasn't going to be good. "Abigail pretended to be Charlene last night when I saw her at the boarding house."

Megan glanced at her best friend, who seemed to get a look of realization on her face. It didn't last long as Charlene's face turned sad and her eyes welled up with tears. Megan felt angry immediately, and it showed as she looked back over at Damon.

"What did you do?" Megan gritted out, making Damon flinch.

Before he could say anything to make this even worse, Elena came down the stairs, interrupting. "I told Jeremy. We can't keep lying to him anymore."

Charlene broke her gaze with Damon, wiping her eyes quickly before Elena could see her tears, and moved over closer to her sister. "I know. I'm glad you told him." The blonde told her, hugging Elena. "What about you? Are you doing okay?"

Elena gave a sigh, returning the hug. "No, not really. I thought with all the tomb vampires gone things would get better."

Charlene brushed hair out of Elena's face. "I know." She said softly. "We all did, but unfortunately like everything else, it was out of our hands."

Elena sighed again as she stepped out of Charlene's grip, but still stayed in contact, grabbing her hand. "Katherine has been invited into the house."

"And so, has Demetria." Megan sighed. This is what she had been dreading ever since they found out all three of the Pierce siblings were never in the tomb in the first place. Demetria coming back was something unexpected and not something she was looking forward to especially if she ever met her in person.

"Oh, and Abigail is here too, apparently." Megan added afterwards, sending a glare in Damon's direction.

"What?" Elena breathed, glancing over at Charlene, but the blonde didn't meet her gaze at all. "What are we going to do now?"

"Move." Was Damon's snarky response, making Megan's glare harden at him even further.

"Great idea, Damon." She bit back sarcastically. "That's exactly what you do when three psychotic vampire bitches come to your hometown and start wreaking havoc."

Damon ignored the comment and went on, "If Katherine, Demetria, and Abigail wants you dead; there's zero you can do about it; you would be dead, but you guys aren't. Clearly they have other plans."

"Right." Stefan nodded in agreement. "And we need to find out what those other plans are and not provoke them in the process."

"Now that we have that covered, what happened when Abigail pretended to be Charlene?" Megan switched the subject as she crossed her arms.

Damon wasn't the one to answer her, but Charlene did, making Megan look over at her.

"He slept with her." The blonde whispered, staring at Damon but he wasn't looking at her. "He thought Abigail was me, and he slept with her." There was a hint of anger in her tone now.

"You thought Charlene was Abigail?" Elena looked at Damon, shaking her head/

"What do you mean he slept with her?" Stefan asked in disbelief.

And of course, Damon had to be Damon and make a stupid remark with that smirk on his face. It was probably just a ploy to cover his true feelings, but it was still unneeded.

"Well, you know, when a man and a woman love each other, they rip each other's clothes off and they…" He feigned a 'sex' and Stefan growled.

Megan watched as her boyfriend looked over at Charlene, seeing the tears welling in her eyes, and that was enough for Stefan to vamp speed to charge at his brother, but Damon was faster than him. "Stefan!" she exclaimed. It was sweet than her boyfriend was protective of her best friend, but trying to attack Damon was pretty stupid.

But Stefan didn't have a chance to even touch him as Charlene quickly went in the middle of them, putting her hands out and stopping them in place.

"Both of you stop it! This isn't the time or place for this!" Charlene growled, her face turning a bit in her emotional state. "This is my house and you don't get to fight in the place where my human brother and sister live!" Her eyes went to Stefan and her face softened. "I appreciate that you care, Stefan, but this is my fight, not yours. I didn't sleep with Damon, Abigail did. Don't make the mistake of mistaking me for Abigail. I'm not her and I never will be her. I'd appreciate it if at least of you would get that through your thick skull." This was directed towards Damon and she glared at him, "I would have never been that easy." With that, she left the room.

Megan was tempted to follow her, but she stayed in her spot. She knew when her best friend needed to be alone. Megan shared a look with Elena and the girl nodded, knowing what the look meant. There was a tense silence until Elena broke it.

"John must know something." She said, looking at Stefan and Damon. "There has to be a reason why Katherine tried to kill him."

"She's Katherine." Damon rolled his eyes. "She loves to play games just like Demetria and Abigail and you're fooling yourselves if you think you're going out what they're up to before she wants you to know."

Stefan stuck up for Elena, making Megan smile. "No, Elena's right, John could know something through Isobel." He nodded in the brunette's direction. "Your mother, she was in touch with Katherine and her sister's so maybe we could go to the hospital and talk."

"I'm in." Megan agreed, and Elena nodded.

"I have a better idea." Damon said, now starting to leave the room.

Megan crossed her arms and gave him a look. "And what would that be? Because your ideas go so well."

Damon ignored her words. "I'm going to ignore the bitches."

She couldn't help but snort at that. "I don't think that's gonna work. Ignoring them isn't going to make them go away."

"It might." Damon disagreed. "Because if they think we're ignoring them, it will lure them out and they'll make a move." He gave a mocking wave. "See you."

Stefan didn't let him go just yet. "Yeah? And then what?" he asked, annoyed. Megan didn't blame him one bit.

His brother shrugged his shoulders. "Stake them, rip their hearts out, something poetic." He smirked. "We'll see." With that, he left the room.

Megan let out a sigh.

After she had gone upstairs, Charlene had heard the rest of their conversations, so she knew when Damon was leaving.

She left her bedroom and made her way downstairs, just in time to see Damon at the front door, about to leave.

"Damon, wait." Charlene called out, and he stopped in his place, turning his head to look at her. She stood in the middle of the stairs.

"What?" He looked and sounded exhausted, but Charlene could care less. Not after what he did.

He slept with Abigail. Someone who wasn't her. It was someone who looked like her. He told her he didn't see her as Abigail anymore. Either had been lying to her or he had been lying to himself. Either way, it still hurt. She should have kept her guard up and shouldn't have allowed herself to fall in love with him.

Yeah, she could finally admit to herself that she was fucking in love with Damon Salvatore and she hated herself for it. But no more. She was going to close her heart off to him and not let him in again. However, that didn't mean it was going to stop her from getting the answer she needed at the moment.

Charlene went the rest of the way down the stairs until she stopped in front of him. She kept her expression cold and detached.

"I have a question…"

"What is it?" Damon asked, keeping his eyes on hers. He winced at the expression on her face, but she kept the same look because she didn't care that he didn't like what he was seeing.

"After we kissed, how long after that did you sleep with Abigail?" He didn't respond, so Charlene pressed on, "Tell me. I want to know how long it was."

He was silent for a little bit longer. "It was about…thirty minutes…"

"Okay…that's all I wanted to know." Charlene gave a nod and turned to go up the stairs again, but Damon grabbed her arm.

That was a mistake.

Charlene pulled her arm away roughly and shoved him into the door. "Don't. Touch. Me."

He held his arms up in surrender as he gave her sorrowful look. "I'm sorry, but you have to know. It didn't mean anything, Charlie. It meant nothing. I thought it was you. Not Abigail. You."

"Well, it wasn't." Charlene said bitterly. "How could you think Abigail was me?"

"You look like each other, how was I supposed to know?" He retorted.

Charlene let her eyes well up with tears, deciding to let some emotion show. "You just are." She didn't say anymore than that as she left him standing there to go back upstairs.

Though she acted all tough about it all, once she was alone, she couldn't help but break down into tears.

She fell to the ground at her bedroom door before she pulled her legs up against her chest, buried her face into her knees, and let the emotions of what happened get to her. She had been pretending to be tough in the living room but Damon sleeping with Abigail hurt her so much…she couldn't believe that he would do that to her.

Charlene thought after what happened between them things would change, but she was foolish to think that would be even possible. He was still going to be Damon and it wouldn't change, no matter how much she hoped it would…especially if he had feelings for her. She hated feeling this way. She never felt this way before even when Tyler cheated on her with Vicki. Her feelings for Damon ran much deeper than it did for Tyler, apparently.

She cried herself to exhaustion, not even bothering to maneuver herself onto her bed for a more comfortable spot. She was going to let herself feel bad for herself just for tomorrow.

Tomorrow, she was going to pretend that she was unbothered by what Damon did to her, that she wasn't deeply hurt by it and she wasn't going to pull a Bella Swan and sink into a depression that she couldn't get out of. She was much stronger than that.

The next morning, Charlene woke up only to find herself on the floor. It took her a moment to remember what happened and she smiled bitterly to herself as she forced herself to get off the ground, so she could get ready for the day. She had to move on from what happened. As she was putting on her makeup, Megan came into her room, making Charlene wonder if she stayed the night so she could be here when the blonde woke up to make sure that she was okay.

"Char…" Her best friend said tentatively. "How are you feeling?" She went over to her, taking in her still messy her hair. Charlene didn't say anything at first once as Megan grabbed her hairbrush off her makeup table and began brushing out her hair.

Charlene closed her eyes at the feeling. It was always nice to have someone brush her hair. To know someone carried. She could always count on her best friend to make her feel better, even when she didn't want to feel better.

Finally, Charlene answered her question, "I'm going to be fine, Megan. I should be used to Damon hurting me by now."

"Yeah…but that was before, you admitted your feelings to him." Her best friend told her in response. "That's what makes what he did hurt a lot more."

"That's not all…Megan…Damon and I…we kissed…when I came back home last night…"

Because of the makeup mirror, Charlene saw the shocked look on her friend's face.

"You guys…did what?!"

The blonde winced at Megan's loud tone. "We kissed…" she said again.

"Char…that's…" The shocked look fell, replaced by a sympathetic look as she realized the other reason why Charlene was so hurt by him sleeping with Abigail. "Oh…I'm so sorry."

She could feel the tears filling her eyes again, but she blinked them away. "It's whatever…" she mumbled. "Clearly, the kiss meant more to be than it did to him."

"I don't think that's true…"

"Yes it is." Charlene cut her off from saying anything more. "He wouldn't have slept with Abigail if it did."

"I know…but…he did think she was you…you saw the picture of Abigail…the resemblance is uncanny. I know that doesn't excuse what he did…but I think if he really knew that it was Abigail, he wouldn't have slept with her."

Charlene shook her head sadly. "That would be a nice thought…but I think he still would have." Luckily, her best friend didn't say anything more on the subject. She changed it as she finished brushing her hair.

"Anyway, me, Elena, and Stefan are going to going to the hospital to talk to John, do you want to come with us?"

"You guys go ahead." Charlene answered. "I'm not really in the mood to go to the hospital right now."

Megan nodded in understanding. "Okay, if that's what you want." She sat the hairbrush down and gave her a soft smile. "Everything will be okay, Char. You'll see." She patted her on the shoulder. "See you later. I love you."

Charlene managed a smile. "I love you too. Good luck with John."

"Yeah, I think we're going to need it. I don't know how much he'll be willing to tell us, maybe with Elena going we'll have a better. She is John's daughter after all."

"Well, call and tell me how it goes."

"I will. Bye." Megan patted Charlene on the shoulder once before leaving her bedroom.

Charlene sighed once she left, hopefully they did find out. They needed to find out what exactly they were doing here.

Bonnie met Matt at the hospital again, and they were now standing in front of each other near Caroline's hospital room.

"You been here all night?" Bonnie asked, not surprised at the least.

Matt nodded, "Yeah, me and the Sheriff."

"No one else?" Bonnie questioned, wanting to know if Damon did what he said he was going to do last night. She breathed an internal sigh of relief when Matt told her what she wanted to hear.

"Stefan's brother Damon stopped by late last night."

Bonnie immediately wanted to see her, knowing that her friend was alright. But she had to ask Matt about how her friend was feeling, so he didn't get suspicious.

"How is Caroline?" Bonnie asked.

Matt couldn't but grin, so she knew she was perfectly fine. "See for yourself."

They entered the blonde's room, and she was resting on the bed, looking healthy as ever. The TV was playing in the background. Caroline looked up, noticing her friend and boyfriend.

She grinned as she sat up straight in the bed. "Jersey's Shores on." Bonnie quickly went over to her friend and hugged her tightly and Caroline winced.

"Careful, still a little sore."

"Sorry." Bonnie apologized, breaking the hug. She was just happy to see that her friend was back to normal…

Caroline smiled. "It's alright."

"My turn." Matt said. grinning.

Caroline's smile turned into a grin as they kissed each other. As she watched them, Bonnie couldn't help the happy tears that had filled her eyes. Matt broke the kiss and Caroline looked at him with a smile.

"Isn't he cute?" she teased, still smiling. She looked at Bonnie and was surprised by the tears in her friend's eyes. "Why are you crying?"

Matt took notice to the tears just as his girlfriend said this. "Oh Bon," he said with a smile, wrapping a arm around her shoulders. He knew that Bonnie was crying because she was happy.

Bonnie sniffed. "I'm just so happy you're alright."

"Aw," Caroline said as she looked at them with love in her eyes. "I love you guys."

"We love you too." Bonnie said back, laughing slightly.

Matt laughed too as the three friends embraced each other.

After making it to the Lockwood mansion, Damon followed Liz and Carole somewhere to be away from the people that had come to the thing for Major Lockwood.

"I just want to know exactly who's responsible for my husband's death," Carole said furiously to herself as they entered one of the many rooms in the mansion.

"I'm looking into it," Liz tried to reassure her. "But you have to be straight with me. Is there any reason Richard was effected by the device?" she asked as they stopped walking and faced each other with Damon, standing in the middle of them.

Carole looked pissed off at what Liz was implying. "Are you implying that he was one of them?"

"No, no one's implying that,." Damon said, seeing that a fight was gonna break out. Good thing he was the middle of them, nut he was still unheard as the argument between the two stubborn woman continued.

"Your deputies' screwed up, plain and simply which makes you responsible!" Carole snapped.

"Carole…" Damon tried to interrupt again.

"Your husband is the one who helped John Gilbert execute his idiot plan in the first place!" Liz snapped back.

"Liz…"

Carole sounded tearful as she spoke her next words. "Someone got my husband killed!"

Liz opened her mouth to say something, but Damon interrupted her before she could.

"We'll all on edge here," he said calmly. He looked at Carole, who looked at him, "You've suffered a great loss. We all have." He placed one of his hands on Liz's shoulder and the other on Carole's, "We have to stick together, okay?" He looked at both Liz and Carole who was looking at him and nodding their heads, "Trust each other, we'll get through this."

Liz and Carole looked at each other before reluctantly nodded.

Tyler was out greeting guests and inviting them in. He shook one man's hand. As soon the man went inside, Tyler watched as a truck came pulling up the driveway. He was surprised to see his Uncle Mason coming out of it. Tyler wasn't expecting him to be here. Sure, it was his brother that died, but it was still strange to see his uncle here.

"So, the black sheep returns," Tyler said, crossing his arms as Mason came up to him.

Mason looked at him up and down before looking at his face, finally recognizing him. "Tyler?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

"What happened to you?" Mason asked with a grin. "In my mind, you're still twelve years old."

"Then that's two years old than the last time you saw me, Uncle Mason." Tyler said as Mason nodded.

Mason gave him one of the hugs that boys did. Tyler patted him awkwardly on the back. It didn't last too long as his uncle pulled back from his hug, smiling at his nephew.

"It's good you see you," he told him.

Tyler nodded. "It's good to see you too." He nodded inside, "Come on in."

Mason nodded in agreement. Tyler was the first one in the house, so he missed the look on Mason's face.

TBC...

In...

The Return, Part 3