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

Jeremy sat at a table in the Grill, drawing in his notebook as he kept a close eye on Tyler Lockwood, who was sitting at table right across from him, so it was easy to do. He was definitely taking advantage of what Megan had said earlier. To what he wanted to do about the whole Lockwood situation, and he decided to go ahead and get involved. Someone had to since everyone else was busy that picnic.

Finally deciding to go over there, Jeremy gathered up his notebook and headed over to Tyler, missing Aimee Bradley and especially her friend Sarah watching him. "Hey man, how have you been?"

Tyler looked up from his phone and frowned at Jeremy. "Since when?"

"I don't know, I haven't seen you much since your father's funeral. I just figured maybe you'd want…" Tyler cut him off before he could finish.

"I'm fine Gilbert." He snapped.

Jeremy frowned at him. "Yeah, okay." He sighed, turning around to leave.

"Wait, hold up." Tyler's voice stopped him, and Jeremy turned back around to look at him, surprised to find an apologetic look on his face. "I'm sorry. Bad day, bad month. Listen, you were cool that day, at the wake. Thanks for that. I felt kind of like a freak show."

Jeremy nodded in understanding. "Yeah, I know the feeling." He paused for a moment. "What are you doing here?"

"Distracting myself." Tyler answered, holding up his phone as Aimee and Sarah came up to his table.

"Hey, thanks for the text." Aimee said to Tyler with a smile. "Where too?"

"My place. My mom is gone all day. Empty house, full stocked bar…"

"Margaritas?"

Tyler nodded. "Sure." He said before turning to look at Jeremy, hesitating for a moment, "You in?"

This was his way in. "Yeah, yeah, I'm in."

Aimee grinned in excitement. "Let's do it!"

Liz was setting up the drink and snack station under the gazebo, and Mason came up to her, handing her a couple of the big bottles of soda he had in hands.

"Oh, thanks Mason." Liz said, grateful for the help.

He nodded, then he stepped over to her. "Hey Sheriff, you got a second?"

"I'm out of uniform. Let's go with Liz." She told him as she turned back around to continue setting up while Mason talked to her.

"Alright Liz. I was hoping to talk to you about the council."

Liz stiffened, but tried to brush it off. "I don't what you've talking about."

Mason sighed as he looked at her seriously. "I know you and other founding families have a secret council."

"If that were true, then you'd know it's a secret and isn't discussed with non-council members."

"I know I rejected all of that, but it's only because I wanted a life outside of this town, not because I was a non-believer." Mason told her, standing next to her now. "Look, I know vampires exist and you have two of them living right under your nose."

Liz looked at him disbelievingly. "Really?"

"Yeah."

"Who would they be?" Liz asked, to humor him.

"Stefan and Damon Salvatore."

Immediately, Liz shook her head at Mason in disbelief. "That's impossible." She frowned at him. "I know Damon Salvatore. Do you know what he has done for this town?"

"I know it's hard to digest."

"No." Liz denied. "I've watched him kill vampires. He's an ally; he's part of the council."

"Think about it." Mason needed her to see through her stubbornness and really think about what he was saying. "When the vampire attacks begin? When Damon and Stefan Salvatore moved to town?"

Liz shook her head yet again, not wanting to believe it. "They walk in the sun, Mason."

"They evolved." Mason said, beginning to get frustrated. "It's not 1864. They figured it out, Liz."

"No. Damon Salvatore is my friend." Liz said sternly, turning away from Mason, done with this conversation.

Mason glanced to the side, seeing Damon and Stefan walking together, before he looked back at Liz. "What if I can prove it to you?"

Liz said nothing as she looked at Damon and Stefan, wondering if maybe Mason was right…

Megan wasn't really listening to what Caroline was talking about as they walked together. She was too busy thinking about Charlene and how she had been avoiding her. It was the only way to make sure she didn't blurt out what was really going on with her and Stefan. She felt bad about it, of course as she really wanted to tell her best friend. Keeping secrets from Charlene was always hard.

Though she had been avoiding the blonde, Megan knew she knew something was up but never let Charlene ask about as she made an excuse to leave every time her best friend tried to. All of this was just pure torture.

Finally snapping out of her thoughts as she remembered Caroline had been talking to her.

"Sorry about that. I zoned out." Megan apologized to her friend, bending down to start painting a veranda. "So, what happened between you and your mom?"

Caroline sighed, starting to paint too. "Well, I was a bitch." She admitted. "Which is bar for the course with us." She changed the subject then as she looked at Megan with concern. "So, how are things with you and Stefan? Anything?"

"We haven't talked since the fight we had at the Grill." Megan sighed sadly. "He's pushing me away. I know that he's scared that Demetria will kill me in a fit of jealousy, and I've been trying to tell him I can take care of myself, and he doesn't need to worry about me and that we shouldn't let Demetria get in between our relationship. I just wish there was something I could do to get him to change his mind."

"He's just trying to protect you, Megan. Even you said Demetria was dangerous."

Megan groaned. "I know she is, and I know he's trying to protect me." She grumbled. "I love him for it, I do, but us doing what she says feels like giving up and I don't want to give up on us. I really thought we were strong enough to get through anything, even Demetria, but maybe I was wrong…" She looked away from Caroline.

The blonde didn't know what to say to that as she went back to painting.

"There you guys are." Charlene said as she came up to them with Elena by her side. "Need any extra help?" She asked even as she grabbed another paint brush.

"Yeah, uh, sure that would be great." Megan gave a weak smile and looked away, avoiding Charlene's gaze. She bit back the urge to tell Charlene everything, knowing that was going to be harder now that Charlene found her.

They painted together in silence as Megan ignored the looks her best friend gave her every once in a while. It got easier when she spotted Stefan walking to another veranda across from them. He started painting and could probably feel her gaze on him as he glanced at her.

The next few minutes were spent with her and Stefan sharing longing glances with one another. Something Caroline couldn't help but comment on.

"Uh-oh, longing looks are being exchanged." She said, sharing looks with Elena and Charlene.

Megan said nothing for a moment as she stood up and sat the paint brush down. "I'm tired of this; I'm going to go over and talk to him."

She started towards Stefan with intent, ignoring Caroline's protests.

It didn't take long to get over to him and Megan stood before him, crossing her arms as she stared at him, forcing a mad look to cross her face. "I have a question." She said in a tone that said she wasn't going to take no for answer.

Stefan sighed, staring up at her wearily. "What is it?"

"Were you lying when you said you didn't care about Demetria anymore?" Megan questioned with pursed lips.

"Don't do this." Stefan told her. "Please don't turn this into something that it's not."

"That's not what I'm doing." Megan denied. "I just want to know the truth, that's all. I want to know if you still have feelings for her." Stefan said nothing and she uncrossed her arms only to put her hands on her hips. "Really? Are we really not going to talk about this?"

"No, I'm saying we aren't going to talk about this right now." Stefan corrected her in a hushed tone. "Because we have ears on us."

Megan looked over to find Elena, Caroline, Charlene, and Damon were listening in on their conversation, well the latter three but she was sure Charlene and Caroline were giving Elena the 411. They all looked away and pretended they hadn't been listening, but they were doing a horrible job at hiding it. She looked back over at Stefan.

"Then when are we going to talk about it?" Megan finally asked.

"I don't know…"

This wasn't the answer Megan was looking for. "We're going to have to talk about it sometime, Stefan. She looks just like me. I just want to understand how you can love me and hate her. It doesn't make any sense to me."

"You're reaching. We're not…we're not Damon and Charlene."

Megan looked at him in disbelief. "Are you really bringing them into this conversation? I know they aren't us!"

He said nothing for a moment. "You know, I can't…I can't do this anymore, Megan." He told her quietly.

Hearing the code word, Megan smiled to herself before responding with her own as tears welled up in her eyes. "Fine, whatever you say, Stefan." She shook her head and she left him standing there. She didn't return to her friends, needing to get away.

"Relationships are all about communication."

Charlene rolled her eyes as she heard Damon say this to Caroline. "You're one to talk." She scoffed before turning towards Caroline and her sister. "Come on, let's go check on Megan and make sure she's okay." Her friends both nodded and they left first, but she stayed back to say one last thing to Damon, "Might be a good idea to check on, Stefan, too."

She started to leave, but Damon stopped her, and she looked back.

"Do you really believe Stefan and Megan are actually fighting?" He questioned.

"That looked like a real fight to me." Charlene answered with a shrug. Though, deep down, she had a feeling they weren't really fighting. "You ask that like you care." She teased, earning an eye roll from Damon.

"I don't." He brushed it off. "Go and check on your friend." He didn't give her a chance to respond as he took off.

Shaking her head, Charlene ran to catch up with Elena and Caroline. Eventually, they found Megan sitting next to a beautiful waterfall, picking the petals off a flower she had in her hand.

"He loves me, he loves me not…" She mumbled to herself, not noticing them heading in her direction.

Charlene couldn't help but look amused as she heard this. "Aren't you a little too old to be doing that?" She teased, hoping to get a smile out of her best friend as she sat down beside Megan. No smile came and she frowned.

"You okay?" Caroline asked concerned, sitting down on the other side of her.

Elena stood behind them, looking worriedly at Megan.

"What do you think?" Megan snapped as she picked the last of the petals and tossed the flower on the ground. "I just had a fight with my boyfriend. Of course, I'm not okay."

"Maybe this is for the best." Caroline said, and Charlene looked at her, not knowing how her blonde friend thought that was the right thing to say.

"No, it's not, Care. None of this is for the best!" Megan couldn't help but shout in frustration, making Caroline flinch.

Charlene immediately put a hand on Megan's shoulders. "Hey, I know you're upset about what happened with Stefan, but you don't have to take it out on Caroline."

Her touch seemed to calm Megan down somewhat. Her friend took a deep breath and let it out before giving Caroline apologetic look.

"I'm sorry." Megan said softly. "I shouldn't have shouted at you like that. This whole thing with Stefan is just…hard. I know that you're just trying to be a good friend."

Caroline said nothing for a moment. "No, I'm not." She said quietly and they all looked at her as she avoided their gazes. "I'm not being a good friend."

"What are you talking about?" Elena asked, speaking for the first time.

She didn't answer as she abruptly stood up.

Megan looked up at her, confused. "What is it, Care?" She followed her gaze and found Caroline staring at her mom as she was on the phone. It looked like the Sheriff was leaving.

"Is she leaving?" Caroline asked, but it was mostly to herself. "Where is my mom going?" The blonde took off in the direction of her mom.

"Should we follow her?" Elena asked, looking at Charlene and Megan.

This question didn't have to ask twice as they hurried after Caroline and she was by herself now, watching her mom leave.

"What's going on?" Megan questioned worriedly.

"I don't know." Caroline responded with a frown. "Something's wrong."

Charlene looked at the spot where Liz Forbes once was. "If something's really wrong, we should go follow her and see what's going on."

Everyone else nodded in agreement.

Damon was furious, and a furious Damon Salvatore was never a good thing. He grabbed a nearby water bottle and used the liquid to get rid of the horrible taste of vervain out of his mouth. After the water bottle was emptied, Damon tossed it over his shoulder with an angry look on his face, spatting the water out of his mouth.

"I'm gonna kill him." He growled as he started to leave to do just that. Mason Lockwood was going to wish he was never born.

Damon didn't get very far as Stefan shoved him back onto the bench. He tried to push his brother away. His brother was not going to stop him this time.

"Listen to me! Sit! Sit!" Stefan held him down by the shoulders.

"I'm not listening anymore of your 'give peace a chance' crap!" Damon told Stefan angrily as he continued to try and get free of his brother's grip. "He's dead!"

"Okay." Stefan said, "I don't like it. He's making threats. He could expose us. We need to put him down."

Hearing these words, Damon stopped struggling, causing Stefan to release him. "Alright, let's do it." He looked around for Mason and the Lockwood was easy to spot as he was bringing trash cans up a hill to go into the woods. "Woods. Trash can duties. Come on."

Megan followed the group into the woods. They had lost track of Liz and were in the process of trying to find her again as they climbed up a large hill to get a better ariel view.

"Where could she have gone?" Megan wondered, looking around.

"The best bet to the find that out is using our vampire hearing." Charlene said.

Caroline nodded in agreement. "Yeah, good idea." She closed her eyes and Charlene did the same.

Megan watched them, unable to stop her gut feeling that something bad was happening. Unfortunately, she was right as she heard sharp gasps from the two blonde, making her heart drop.

"What is it?!" Megan asked urgently, grabbing onto Charlene's shoulders as she turned her friend around to face her. The sinking feeling in her stomach came back with a vengeance at the sight of the tears in her best friend's eyes. "Charlene!"

"It's Stefan and Damon."

Those words made Megan's eyes go wide in horror, thinking the worse. "We have to go find them!" Not waiting for a response from her friends, she took off running through the woods.

Eventually, her friends joined her, and they frantically looked around for Liz, Damon, and Stefan. Megan was so worried she practically started hyperventilating, forgetting for a moment she had to pretend she was fighting with Stefan.

Immediately, Charlene had to try and comfort her. "Calm down, we're going to find them, Megan."

"But…what if we don't…?" Megan wheezed out. "What if they…?" She didn't finish because she knew that her best friend would know what she was trying to say and Charlene did, if her response was anything to go by.

"That's not going to happen!" Charlene snapped. "We're not going to lose them."

"Guys… we found something." Elena's voice snapped them out of their freak out moment.

Megan and Charlene looked over at their friends. Elena pointed, and there was Caroline kneeling before a planet, examining it.

"It's blood." Caroline said to their questioning glances.

That's not good…

"Girls, what are you doing out there?" They all turned to find it was Mason who had asked this.

Megan's eyes narrowed at him. "The better question is why you're here…have you seen Stefan?" Why did she have this bad feeling Mason Lockwood had something to do with this?

"Yeah Megan, I've seen him." Mason said, answering her internal question. "Seen Damon too." He added as he stared at Charlene who glared at him.

"Where are they, Mason?" Charlene gritted out.

"You don't need more for that. I'll let you and your friend sniff them out." Mason said, staring at her for a moment before he turned his gaze towards Caroline. "Does your mother know what you are? I'm happy to tell her."

Caroline started towards Mason, but he quickly grabbed onto Elena from behind and strangled her with his arm.

"Let her go!" Charlene growled immediately, her face starting to change because of her anger at Mason for putting Elena in harm's ways.

"Don't be stupid!" Mason warned. "Necks snaps easy around here."

"We can take you." Caroline challenged as both Charlene and Megan got into fighting stance.

Mason scoffed, tightening his grip on Elena as the brunette let out a frightened squeak. "Wanna bet?"

"Yeah, we do." Caroline was the first one to make a move as she charged at Mason, managing to get him and free Elena, who ran to stand behind Charlene and Megan. The blonde vampire pushed him against a tree, and she smirked at Mason's startled expression. "Told you, but unfortunately for you, we're just getting started." She tossed him on the ground.

Then it was Charlene's turn and she dropped kicked him, causing him to groan in pain. "You can so forget about that date!" she told him angrily.

Megan did something next as she used to her powers to toss him into a tree hard and he crumbled to the ground with another groan. "That's for hurting Stefan and Damon and for almost killing Elena!"

Satisfied with what happened, Megan started running with her friends right beside her. She couldn't help but comment about what Charlene had said to Mason.

"Were you really going on a date with Mason?" She asked, amused.

"Unfortunately, but that's not important. We need to find Damon and Stefan."

Megan nodded, a serious expression crossing her face. It didn't take them long to pinpoint where exactly they were, thanks to Charlene and Caroline's vampire senses, which led them to the old Lockwood property. There was gun shot, and Megan immediately grabbed onto Charlene's arm.

"What was that?" It was stupid thing to ask, but she was really hoping the gun shot wasn't what she thought it was.

Caroline put a hand to her mouth, obviously hearing something, and Megan's heart fell especially seeing that Charlene had the same reaction as the other blonde.

"She's killing them." Caroline breathed.

"What?! We have to stop her!" Megan was about to run down there, to follow after Charlene, who had immediately took off after hearing what was happening, but Caroline quickly grabbed onto her arm.

"No, I can't, Megan." Caroline pleaded. "She's going to find out about me."

Her friend looked desperate, but Megan couldn't let Liz kill Stefan, or Damon. She shook her head.

"I'm sorry." Megan apologized as she tugged her arm out of Caroline's grip and ran inside.

By the time she made it to the main cellar, Charlene was already there, pleading with Liz. "Stop! Just let them go! They weren't hurting anyone!"

"She's right!" Megan shouted, making her appearance known as Liz pointed her gun at her.

"Megan! What are you doing?"

"I'm not going to let you kill them! They haven't done anything!"

One of her deputies came from behind the two of them and shoved them inside. Charlene immediately growled, causing her face to change, revealing herself as a vampire to them.

Eyes wide, the deputy readied his gun at her, but he didn't have the chance to do it anything as the door of the cellar slammed shut.

"What was that?"

"Who else is with you?" Liz demanded.

Megan said nothing, and neither did Charlene. Not that they had time as Caroline attacked the deputy who had his gun pointed at Charlene and bit harshly into his neck. The other deputy fired at her, but the blonde vampire was too quick, and he ended up shooting the first deputy. When he stopped shooting, Caroline rushed up to him from behind and threw him to the ground, knocking him out. She stopped only to step out inside the darkness and revealing her vampire face to her mom.

Liz looked horrified as Caroline's face went back to normal and the blonde smiled weakly at her mom, blood all over her mouth.

"Hi mom."

To say Charlene was relieved was an understatement. She had been so worried she was going to lose Damon for real and to see he was alive was such a big relief. All of this made Charlene realize she couldn't stay mad at Damon anymore. The last thing she wanted was Damon to die, thinking she still hated him.

Charlene glanced over at Megan as her best friend sat beside Stefan, rubbing his back in comfort. She had been so scared just like she was that she was going to lose Stefan, this only made Charlene realize even more that Megan and Stefan weren't really fighting. So, the question was…why were they faking it in the first place?

Charlene snapped out of her thoughts, seeing Damon was done feeding and was about to stand up. Not knowing if he was still weak or not, she still went over to him to help him get to his feet. Damon gave her a smile in response and started towards Stefan to check on him, thinking she was going to let him go after helping him. It didn't turn out that way as Charlene kept a firm grip on his arm, stopping him in place. Damon looked at her confused, but she said nothing as the look of confusion left his face and was replaced with a soft one as he got his arm out of his grip only to wrap his arm around her shoulder. Charlene smiled at the gesture before unconsciously moving into his side.

"You need to drink some deputy blood." Damon said to Stefan, looking over at his brother.

Stefan shook his head instantly. "No." He said. "I'll be fine. It's just going to take a bit longer."

Megan's hands moved up to his shoulders, massaging them, thinking maybe it would help as Caroline, who was sitting on the other side of cellar, spoke up in a quiet voice.

"Damon's right, you know. If there's ever a time to break your diet…" Caroline trailed off when she was stopped by Megan.

"Look, he doesn't have to drink human blood if he doesn't want to, okay?" Her best friend snapped. "It's his choice to make." She went back to focusing on Stefan, a worried expression on her face. If she did make the choice for him, Charlene knew that Megan would have wanted him to drink the human blood to make him feel better quicker.

"This is a most unfortunate situation." Damon commented. "Two deputies dead and you." He looked over at Liz, who had been remaining quiet. "What am I going to do with you?"

"You won't tell anyone, will you?" Caroline pleaded, looking at her mom but Liz wouldn't look her in the eye. "Mom? Mom? Please. Look I know that we don't get along and that you hate me, but I'm your daughter and you'll do this for me, right?" Still no response from her mom. "Mom, please." She tried pleading again. "He will kill you."

"Then kill me." Liz said quietly after a moment. Her eyes welled up with tears, the emotional clear on her face. She really meant it. Looking at Caroline's heartbroken face, Charlene's own face filled with emotion. Poor Care.

"No!" Caroline exclaimed, horrified.

"I can't take this!" Liz sobbed out. "Kill me now."

Damon removed his arm from around Charlene's shoulder and went over to Liz, bending down to look her in her tear filled eyes. "But you were going to drag it out so painfully." Suddenly, he grabbed her, and Liz stood up quickly.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no!"

"Damon, don't!"

"Damon, please!"

"Damon…" Charlene said his name in warning.

He rolled his eyes. "Relax guys, no one is killing anyone." Everyone relaxed and Charlene sighed in relief as he looked back at Liz with a soft look. "You're my friend." He looked around then, his gaze landing on the dead deputies. "We've got to clean this up."

Megan sighed as she settled herself down on Stefan's bed, wanting to go to sleep after the long day they had. She couldn't do that yet as she was waiting up for Stefan to get back from hunting, and Caroline was on her way over here too as her mom was going to be here for a few days in the Salvatore cellar until the vervain left her system, so Damon could compel her to forget everything that happened.

Thinking about Liz's reaction to finding out Caroline was a vampire; Megan couldn't help but feel bad for her friend. If they hadn't had to save Damon and Stefan, then Caroline's mom would still be in the dark about Caroline's secret. Nothing could be done about it now.

Megan closed her eyes to rest her eyes for a minute, but it didn't last long as she heard her name being called. She sat up in her bed to see it had been Charlene.

"Hey, how are you doing?" Her best friend asked, going over to Stefan's bed, and sitting down on the edge.

"As good as I can be, I guess." Megan answered. "Between fighting with Stefan and everything that happened today, I could be better."

"Same here." Charlene agreed. "We could have lost them today…"

Megan sighed. "I know, but we didn't." She said nothing for a moment. "You figured it out, didn't you?"

Charlene's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Figured out what?"

"That mine and Stefan's fights are fake?"

"Oh. That, yeah, it wasn't that hard to figure out. Especially after how you reacted to what happened."

Megan laughed. "Yeah, that probably gave it away."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Stefan thought it would be better if the less people who knew the better, so Demetria wouldn't find. She threatened to kill me and everyone I care about if I didn't stay away from Stefan, so fake fighting with Stefan was the only way to make sure that didn't happen. Not only that… Caroline was also reporting everything that happened with me and Stefan back to Demetria, so she had to believe the fighting was real."

"I wish you would have told me." Charlene said, and Megan winced. "But I understand why you didn't, so it's okay.

Megan sighed in relief. "Thank god."

Charlene laughed at her reaction and Megan grinned at her, happy her best friend wasn't mad at her.

A little while later, Stefan had returned from hunting and he entered the living room where Megan was, who perked up at the sight of him.

She went over to him. "Do you feel better?"

"Much better, thanks."

"You scared me today." Megan told him seriously.

"I know, but I'm okay. Promise." Stefan pulled her into a hug.

Megan buried her face into his shoulder. "You better be." She mumbled into his shirt, and he pressed a kiss to the top of her head. There was a ring at the front door, breaking the moment between them.

"That's Caroline." Stefan said.

"I'll go get it." Megan told him, kissing his cheek as she left to answer the front door. She opened it, revealing Caroline on the other side. "Hey, Care."

"Hey, sorry that took forever." Caroline said in response as Megan moved off to the side to allow her friend inside. "I just didn't know how long my mom was gonna be here."

"If I remember correctly, I think Damon said it should only take a few days for the vervain to leave her system." Megan told her as they started to head over to the basement cellar. "Hopefully it'll be sooner though."

Caroline nodded, "I hope it's sooner." It was then Stefan decided to join them and she looked back at him with a smile. "Hey! Did you get some bunny in you?"

"Yeah, I'm feeling much better, thank you." Stefan answered with a small smile.

They arrived at the cell, and they were about to enter, but Caroline stopped abruptly, making Megan run into her back.

She opened up her mouth to ask what was wrong. Her question was answered though when she heard what Caroline's mom said.

"Can you please keep Caroline away from me? I don't want to see her."

Megan frowned at her words and managed to see the hurt expression on Caroline's face. "Care…"

Her friend ignored her.

"She's your daughter, Liz." Damon said.

"Not anymore. My daughter's gone."

"You have no idea how wrong you are about that."

Caroline stepped back and moved past Megan and Stefan without looking at either of them.

"Caroline!"

Megan ran after her, but her friend was already long gone. She sighed heavily as she begrudgingly made her way back to Stefan only to stop in place when she saw he had the freezer open and a blood bag in his hand.

"Stefan…" Megan said his name slowly. "What…what are you doing?"

He didn't look at her as he responded to her, staring intently at the bag of blood. "Demetria and her sisters took a little vervain every day and built up a tolerance to it…I could do the same with blood. I could learn to control myself on it."

Megan didn't expect him to say this, but she sucked in a breath and let it out to remain calm. "Are you sure that's a good idea?" she asked softly.

"I almost died tonight. Because I was too weak."

"I know you did." Megan told him. "I was there…" She said nothing for a moment. "I'm just worried…I know you remember as well I do what happened the last time you were on human blood. What if it happens again?"

Stefan finally looked at her, ignoring her question. "I told you I'd find a way to stop Demetria, didn't I? This is it; this is the only way because she's stronger than me. And unless that changes, I can't protect you."

"I've told you before I don't need protection, Stefan. I don't want you to start drinking human blood, just because you want to protect me. I want you to do it for you. Not for me." Megan didn't care if he wanted to drink human blood. Sure, she didn't like person the blood made Stefan, but if he wanted to drink, who was she to stop him. At least this time he was actually telling her about this time. "Look, can we just talk about this later? It's been a long day and I really don't want to get into it right now." She shook her head. "I'm going to check on Caroline. She needs me." It was wrong to run away from this subject, but she would continue the conversation…only later.

Megan left the basement and found Caroline sitting down on the couch with Charlene, who sat next her with an arm around her shoulders as the blonde leaned her head against Charlene's. "Do you want me and Charlene to take you home?" she asked as she settled down on the arm of the couch.

Caroline shook her head. "I can't go home."

Charlene squeezed her friend's shoulder. "What do you mean?"

"Because I'm scared." Caroline admitted, starting to tear up.

"Care, what are you so scared about?" Megan tried softly, brushing away Caroline's hair from her face. "You know you can talk to me about anything, you know that?"

Caroline let out a shaky breath. "Demetria is going to be there and she's going to want to talk to tell her everything that happened today." She said softly. "She told me I had to spy on you and report back to her."

"I already know…" Megan decided to let Caroline and the blonde looked at her in disbelief. "When I found out, I was so mad at you for doing it, but then I thought about if I had been in your shoes, what would make me do something like that to my friend and to Stefan, who has been such a good friend to you? It would be because someone threatened someone I love." She watched as Caroline looked down at her lap. "Care…who did she threaten?"

Tears finally slipped down her face as Caroline glanced back up at Megan. "Matt, she threatened Matt." She sobbed out. "And I'm so scared of her, Megan! I am so scared of her."

"I know you are." Megan soothed, reaching a hand out to wipe away her tears. "We all should be. Not only of Demetria, but of Abigail and Katherine too. They're all here for a reason."

"What do they want?" Caroline sniffed as she leaned her head back against Charlene.

Megan sighed. "I wish we knew." She sat down on the other side of Caroline and embraced her friend, making it into a group hug since Charlene was already holding onto her.

Since he hadn't heard from Liz Forbes since he left her to deal with Damon and Stefan, Mason called her, but it went straight to voice mail, so he left her a message.

"Hey Sheriff, it's Mason Lockwood. I just want to make sure everything went okay today. I didn't see you later and…give me a call will you." Sighing, he hung up and looked up to find Tyler coming into the room. "Hey." He greeted his nephew.

"I almost killed a girl today."

Mason didn't expect those words to come out of Tyler's mouth. "What?"

"It was an accident…" Tyler explained quietly. "I was being stupid. She's okay though but there I was, y'know, and just for a split second, I hoped she would die." He stepped forward. "Look, whatever this is inside me, I don't want any part of it. I don't want to ever feel that way again. I won't. I can't."

His uncle nodded, knowing exactly how Tyler was feeling. "I know."

There was silence for a moment as Tyler pulled the moonstone out of his pocket and handed it over to Mason.

"Thank you."

"Yeah." Tyler took off and Mason looked down at the moonstone, a smile slowly growing on his face.

Eventually Caroline passed out on the couch, exhausted from the days events and Charlene couldn't blame her. Her friend was having such a rough go of it lately. First turning into a vampire, secondly Bonnie hating her because she was one, and last but not least and probably the worst of it all, her mother finding out about her secret and hating her for it.

Charlene had been lucky her friends and the family that knew about her being a vampire hadn't reacted in the same way as with Caroline. It just wasn't fair to Caroline. She knew it wasn't her fault, but she still couldn't help but feel bad about it. Charlene sighed as she fixed a blanket over Caroline's sleeping form before brushing her blonde hair out of her face.

"Goodnight Care." Charlene told her friend softly, even though Caroline couldn't hear her.

Kissing her forehead, she turned around to leave only to find Damon standing before her. Seeing him, Charlene couldn't help herself from thinking if things hadn't worked out she wouldn't have seen him again, but there was no point in thinking about now. He was here, and he was alive. That's all that mattered.

"Hey." Charlene smiled at him as she shuffled on her feet a bit. "So, uh, Caroline is staying the night here, if that's okay."

"Yeah. I heard." Damon paused. "What about you?"

"I'm gonna go home and stay the night there, but Megan's here. She had to talk to Stefan about something." Charlene said as she headed to the front door, feeling Damon walking along side her. She stopped and turned to face him, biting her bottom lip for a moment as she thought about something.

She didn't think about it for long and she went over to Damon only to hug him. He was surprised by this but only for a moment as he slowly returned Charlene's embrace.

"I'm so glad you're alive, Damon." She whispered in his shoulder. "I wanted you to know that…" Pulling back, she looked into his blue eyes she loved so much. "After today, I realized something, Day. If I had lost you, I didn't want you to die, thinking I hated you. I don't hate you I never have…and I forgive you." Damon looked like he didn't know what to say to that, and she leaned in only to kiss him on the cheek. "Goodnight Damon." She broke the embrace and opened the door.

"Goodnight Charlie."

Damon's voice stopped her again and she looked back at him from over her shoulder with a smile. With that, she took off back to her house, smiling to herself.

Megan managed to find Stefan in the library, sitting on the couch. He knew of her presence before she even said anything.

"You can come in." Stefan said, not breaking his gaze away from the fireplace.

Megan stepped further into the library. "I'm ready to talk about the whole blood thing." She informed him. "Do…do still want to drink human blood?"

"Yes."

"Do you really think you can control it if you do?" That was one of the questions weighing on Megan's mind. The thing she wanted was for the same thing to happen as it did the last time he was on human blood. It was an awful thing to go through, especially for Stefan.

"I don't know but if I don't try…"

"Then how will you know for sure." Megan finished for him as she went to stand next to the couch and looked at Stefan. "And you said just a little bit of it every day, right?"

Stefan nodded. "Yeah, just a few drops of blood in my system." He answered. "I think it's worth trying."

Megan said nothing for a moment. "Like I said, if this is something you really want to do I'm not going to stop you." She said. "But…I'm not going to let you go through this alone…not again." She grabbed a paper knife from the table nearby as he looked up at her, confused.

"What are you doing?"

Saying nothing, Megan sliced into her hand with the knife, wincing a bit at the feeling. She settled down on the couch next to Stefan and offered her hand to him.

"You've not going to be alone in this." Megan told him softly, using her uninured hand to brush her fingers against one of his cheeks. "It's you and me, Stefan. No matter what happens."

Slowly, Stefan took her hand and started to drink her blood. Megan watched as his face changed before her eyes. After a moment, he pulled back from her and she cupped his face into her hands, her fingers tracing the veins under his eyes. With no hesitation, she kissed him and closed her eyes, tasting the blood on his mouth. She pulled back after a few minutes as she watched his face go back to normal. Megan smiled at him, and he returned her smile before they kissed again.

Deep inside the woods, Mason headed towards a car waiting for him. He slid into the passenger seat. The lights inside the car flickered, revealing Abigail Pierce on the driver's side.

"Finally." Abigail breathed in relief. "About time you showed up Mason."

"Sorry." He leaned in to kiss her, but she stopped him by pressing a hand against his mouth.

Abigail gave him withering look. "Why the hell did you pull that stunt with Damon and Stefan Salvatore?"

He looked at her, confused. "I thought you and your sisters would be happy about that."

"We, especially me and Demetria, told you to stay away from them. That was a stupid move you pulled. You could have gotten hurt." She said those last words, but she didn't mean them. She could care less about Mason. She was only in cahoots with him because Katherine told her to, so they could get a hold of the moonstone.

Mason's face softened. "I'm sorry, didn't mean to worry you."

Abigail waved it off. "Don't worry about it, but if you pull something like that again, next time I won't be so lenient." She told him sternly and he nodded. She said nothing for a moment. "Did you manage to get the moonstone?"

A smile slowly appeared on Mason's face. "I got it."

Katherine would be glad to hear that as Abigail pulled a smirk. "Good." She moved in and kissed him passionately, Mason automatically returning the kiss.

TBC...

In...

Plan B, Part 1

As promised, here's the next chapter! One episode closer into getting to the episode Rose and finally introducing Elijah. :D If you haven't already, please vote on what original you want to see Charlene in a romance with! See you in the next episode!