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: I'm glad you guys are enjoying the rewrite as much as I am writing it! :)

Megan yawned as Charlene drove them over to the boarding house. It was way too early in the morning for the perky teenager. She might be a morning person, but she definitely wasn't one today. Mostly because she was little worried about what Damon and Stefan asked them over for.

"Hopefully it's nothing too bad." Megan brought up to Charlene. "The last thing we need is add something else to the plate of the things happening." They were still dealing with the repercussions of Caroline getting turned into a vampire. Luckily, Damon hadn't threatened her life since the carnival, which given was only a week ago, but still, at least he wasn't focusing on that.

Of course, though, Charlene threatened him not to mention it again, and the last thing Damon wanted was to make her best friend madder at him than she already was.

"I'm sure it's nothing bad." Charlene responded with a shrug. "It's probably just to talk about the Lockwoods and what could be going on with them. Alaric is supposed to be coming over too."

Megan's eyebrows furrowed together. "Why?"

Her best friend shrugged. "I have no idea. Maybe they think he might have some insight on it. I mean, he did study stuff about Mystic Falls before he came here, so maybe he read something about the Lockwoods while he did."

After thinking about it, Charlene brought up a valid point.

Megan nodded. "Yeah, maybe. As long as it's nothing bad, I don't care what the hell we talk about."

Charlene giggled. "Right."

Silence filled the car, but it didn't last long.

"So…" Megan started, "Are you going to be okay seeing Damon after what happened with Caroline?"

Her best friend's face soured a bit at the mention of it, but it didn't stay that way as she shrugged indifferently. "I'll be okay. I'll just ignore him if he says something to me."

"Mmm…so how long are you going to torture him by not forgiving him?" Megan asked, giving Charlene a knowing look.

"I'm not torturing him. He doesn't deserve forgiveness. I'm not doing this to him because I like it. He hurt me, Megan. Hurt Jeremy. He doesn't deserve to be my friend or anything more than that. I can't walk around eggshells around him all the time because I'm afraid that he's going to do something to hurt me or anyone I care about. That's not what a relationship is about. I shouldn't be afraid that he could hurt me. I don't deserve that."

Megan took in her words and her best friend was right. She didn't deserve that…but Charlene still loved Damon. She honestly didn't know what Charlene saw in the older Salvatore…what she did know was Damon was better with her best friend than without her. It was only a matter of time Charlene would forgive him because as long as Megan was with Stefan, they were going to be in each other's lives for a long time, but she did get why her best friend didn't want to forgive Damon. If she kept Damon at a distance, the fear she had of him hurting her or anyone she cared about, wouldn't happen.

The rest of the ride to the boarding house was filled with silence. Once they made it there, Megan was the first one out the door as she noticed Stefan standing on the front porch, watching them drive up.

Grinning, she skipped over to her boyfriend and pulled him into a hug at first, then brought her lips to his. "Hey you." She murmured against his mouth before pulling back to grin at him.

"Hey you." He greeted back, smiling down at her.

He kissed her again and she smiled into the kiss. It didn't last long as she heard Charlene give an overexaggerated gagging noise behind her and she pulled back to stick her tongue out at her best friend.

"You guys make me sick." Charlene teased playfully.

"Oh hush, you're just jealous." Megan told her, sticking her tongue out again. "Because I have the best boyfriend in the world." She gazed up at Stefan then, admiring his beautiful face. She really was the luckiest girl in the world.

This was the best relationship she ever had. Megan had never felt so much love for someone before. She had loved Josh, yes, but she now realized it was just puppy love. This was the real deal.

"Whatever." Charlene rolled her eyes. "Enough of this gushy stuff, let's go inside and get this meeting over with. Is Alaric on his way?"

Stefan nodded. "Yeah, he should be here in ten minutes."

"Great, I'm gonna go get some blood. I'm starving." Charlene commented, going inside the boarding house, and leaving Megan and Stefan alone.

Since her best friend was gone, Megan kissed her boyfriend, letting the kiss be deeper than their last two kisses were. When she pulled back, they were both dazed.

Megan smiled dreamily as she stared into his eyes. "Have I told you how much I love you?"

"Once or twice…well even more than that actually." Stefan responded, kissing her forehead. He slid his arm around her shoulders and led her inside the house.

She snuggled into his side. "Well, get used to it. I'm gonna keep saying it."

"I can deal with that."

Megan smiled at his words as Stefan closed the doors behind him.

Down in the basement, Charlene's head was deep inside Damon's freezer holding the stash of blood bags. Normally, she would ask if she could have one, but she was hungry enough where this time she didn't care to ask.

She grabbed a bag that smelt the most appealing and took a deep sip of it, letting the warmth of the blood tickle her throat. Charlene made a pleasurable noise in response. She ate what she wanted of it before throwing it away and wiping the leftover blood off her mouth.

There was just something about tasting human blood that was so good especially the ones where you didn't have to kill to get it. Charlene would never get used to it.

Closing the freezer, she turned around to leave only to bump into someone's chest. She just knew it was Damon automatically just from the scent of leather. Charlene instinctually took in the smell of him, closing her eyes briefly. She looked up then, catching Damon's beautiful blue eyes that never failed to leave her breathless, despite being still mad at him.

"Charlene, what are you doing down here?" Damon asked, snapping the blonde out of whatever trance she was in.

Of course, she scolded herself for it, because she was supposed to be mad at him, not staring at him like some silly school girl.

"What's it you to you?" Charlene retorted, going with the defensive route this time. "I just came down here to get some blood, that's all. I was hungry."

"From my stash? It's not nice to steal, Charlie." Damon told her, crossing his arms. "Especially from someone who you're mad at."

"Well, my stomach is more important than my anger at you." Charlene said with a shrug. Changing the subject, she said, "Let's just go upstairs. Alaric should be coming along soon." She didn't let him say anything else as she hurried out of there.

She ignored him the rest of the time they were together as they waited for Alaric to get here. Megan sat in between them, looking completely awkward and kept glancing in between Charlene and Damon, probably waiting for one of us to say the wrong thing.

Nothing happened as there was finally a knock on the door, and Megan was able to relax as Damon got up to answer it.

"Talk about awkward." She whispered to Stefan, who was across from her on the love seat.

Charlene could still hear her though. If there was one main thing Megan was terrible at, it was whispering.

"I can still hear you." Charlene informed her, as she always did when her best friend tried to whisper something.

"Well, it was." Megan muttered in response, making Charlene smile at her fondly. Damon brought in Alaric at that moment and the teenager beamed brightly at their history teacher as she waved at him. "Hi Ric!"

Even though he looked like this was the last place he wanted to be, Alaric still gave her a smile back, of course unable to help it. It wasn't her fault Megan's happiness was contagious. Then he took over Damon's spot, looking between them.

"Thanks for coming, Ric." Damon said, starting off the meeting. "Can I get you something to drink? Coffee, bourbon? Bourbon in your coffee?"

Alaric made the right decision to ignore Damon's snarky-ness. "Charlene mentioned you needed my help."

"Yeah." Stefan confirmed. "We were hoping you could help shed some light on the Lockwood family."

"Now, why would I know anything about the Lockwood?" Alaric questioned with raised eyebrows.

"Well, you wouldn't. But your dead, not dead vampire might."

Charlene froze at the mention of her aunt, and so did Megan.

"Uh, is that really a good idea?" Megan spoke up nervously. "I think the last thing we need is Isobel coming here."

Charlene nodded immediately in agreement, but then realized something. "Oh…I think they're taking about the research Isobel did on Mystic Falls at Duke." She commented, looking over at Megan.

Instantly, Megan's tense shoulders relaxed in relief. "Thank god, I rather leave that woman in the past." She breathed out.

Especially after what happened the last time their aunt and Elena's birth mother was here. The only good that happened there was, Charlene realizing Damon was in love with her. That seemed like such a long time ago and look where they were at now.

Sighing inwardly, Charlene stuck a glance at Damon, smiling sadly to herself. Her self-reflection was interrupted by Stefan speaking.

"You said that she had spent years researching this town." He said.

Alaric sighed, leaning back against his seat. He probably didn't expect that this was the conversation he was looking forward when Charlene mentioned it to him. The blonde couldn't help but feel bad.

"Isobel's research here in Mystic Falls rooted in folklores and legends but at the time, I thought much of which were fiction." Alaric explained.

"Like that amazing vampire story." Damon inputted with a smirk.

"Which we all know isn't fiction." Charlene couldn't help but say. Damon glanced at her, but she had looked back at Alaric, so she didn't see it, however, she definitely felt it. "What else is there, Ric?" She couldn't but be curious about it. Megan was too as she felt her best friend straightened up at her question.

"Yeah, what else?" Megan added, not bothering to hide her excitement over the subject.

"The lycanthrope."

"Werewolves?!" Megan shouted, making everyone in the room jump a little. Her eyes sparkled with enthusiasm. "That's awesome! My god, if they are anything like Jacob Black from the Twilight series, this would literally be the best news I've had all day."

"Rein it back in, Meg." Charlene said, shaking her head.

Megan noticed everyone was looking at her weirdly and she cleared her throat awkwardly. "Er, carry on." She ducked her head into Charlene's shoulder in her embarrassment.

Charlene patted the top of her best friend's head in a soothing manner in response.

Pretending what happened with Megan didn't happen, Damon went back to the subject at hand, rolling his eyes. "No way, impossible, way too Lon Chaney."

"Is it?" Stefan questioned.

"I've been on this planet one hundred and sixty some odd years, never came across one. If werewolves exist, where the hell are they?"

"That's kind of stupid." Megan said, lifting her head from Charlene's shoulder and making a face. "If vampires can exist, why couldn't werewolves? It's not that farfetched when you think about it. Besides, just because you haven't seen one, doesn't mean they don't exist."

"She has a point." Stefan told Damon, making Megan beam at him happy he agreed with her.

Charlene nodded, wanting to stick up for her best friend too. "Exactly, and like I said at the carnival, Mason Lockwood is definitely something supernatural, and what is the opposite of vampire…werewolves."

Damon opened his mouth to comment, but Alaric cut him off.

"Why did you suspect the Lockwoods?"

The older Salvatore turned his attention to Alaric. "Because vervain didn't affect the mayor at the Founders' Day, but the Gilbert device did, and it affected his son, Tyler."

"And at the school carnival his uncle Mason exhibited inhuman behavior when he fought with one of the carnival workers." Stefan added his two cents in. "It suggests it's some sort of supernatural entity."

"I'm still going with werewolves." Megan mumbled, twirling her fingers together.

"Do you think Isobel might have the information we need?" Charlene asked, looking at Alaric.

He frowned in thought. "Well, all her things are still at Duke. I mean, her office is still there. She's technically still missing."

"So, can we get access to it?" Damon looked impatiently at Alaric, who didn't answer. Sighing, he leaned closer to his friend, a serious look on his face. "Ric, we need to what we are dealing with. If this wolfman thing is true, and that's debatable." He glanced over at Megan, who rolled her eyes at him and mumbled something under her breath.

"Well, you owe me a drink if I turn out to be right."

Damon heard her and it was his turn to roll his eyes, but he didn't comment as he returned his attention to Alaric. "I've seen enough movies to know it's not good. It means Mason Lockwood is a real-life Lon Chaney and that little Tyler punk may just very well be Lon Chaney junior, which means Bella Lugosi, meaning me, is totally screwed."

Well, it looked like a trip to Duke University was in their future.

TBC...

In...

Bad Moon Rising, Part 1

Decided to end the first part of this episode here. Next one should be the last part. :) Hope you enjoyed reading! Until next time!