Just A Girl (TVD)

Blood Brothers

It took a long while of sitting in silence for Charlie to say what 'bad thing' he'd done. And it was definitely bad. I texted Jenna that I would be out most of the night then turned my ringer off. I turned to Charlie and looked him dead in the eyes, holding his hand. "I promise you, everything is gonna be fine."

"No, it's not, Nora." He said. "It's extremely far from fine and I have a feeling it's not going to get better."

I sighed and got up, pulling Charlie with me. "Come on." I said. "We're gonna fix this... I'm gonna fix this."

I walked Charlie through the forest, ignoring his words of opposition. We exited the thick layer of trees and began to walk down a road. At the end of the road was a house. A big, familiar house, with the lights still on.

The Salvatore Boarding House always had an eerie vibe to it. I could sense Charlie's nervousness behind me. "What are we doing here?" He asked as we stepped onto the porch.

"Just wait." I said before knocking on the door possibly a bit harder than I should have. "Hello?" I yelled through the door. "Anyone home?" I called out.

Soon enough the door opened to reveal a very tired looking Damon Salvatore. I'm not sure what having younger siblings is like but I'm sure that if it were possible, Stefan would've given Damon stress wrinkles by now considering the look on his face. Either that or the other way around. "What are you two doing here?" He asked, his voice bland, not even making an effort to sound sarcastic or snarky. He just sounded... well, tired. It was a long night for all of us after all.

Charlie looked at me, tilting his head. "Yeah, what are we doing here, Nora?" He asked, hinting that he wanted to leave. Of course the last person he wanted to be around was Damon, but I knew he could help.

I took a deep breath in preparation. "We need your help to hide a body."

Damon's eyes widened. It was a bit disorienting considering he rarely shows any trace of surprise. "Who did you kill? And how?" He asked me.

"Not her." Charlie said, looking at the ground.

"Let me get this straight." Damon started. "The personification of a teddy bear murdered someone." I caught Charlie slightly flinching at the word murder, within good reason of course. "And because you two are so annoyingly close, you're helping him hide the body."

"No." I said. "First of all, the word murder implies the specific intent of killing someone, which I'm sure wasn't the case. Secondly, I'm not helping hide the body, you are."

"And why would I do that?" He asked.

"Oh maybe cause your brother almost killed my friend and you are just so overwhelmed with guilt." I replied with an innocent smile. "And cause the local Mystic Falls Super Secret Boy Band is hot on your trail so another body would not be very good news."

"Has anyone ever told you that you're the most annoying Gilbert?"

"Even more than uncle John?" I asked.

"You're right, that's pushing it." Damon stepped out of the house. "Alright, lead the way."

After an hour of walking and Damon making snide comments while I attempted to calm Charlie's nerves, we made it to the scene. It was some random high school student. Blood stained the brown leaves on the ground he lay on. The rock next to his head was also covered in blood. His ears and mouth also were covered in dried blood. "We got in a fight." Charlie said, his eyes filled with even more horror than mine. "I don't even remember what it was about, I just... I pushed him too hard."

Damon sighed. "Guilt sounds so exhausting right now." He jabbed the shovel into the soil and started digging. Charlie disregarded his statement and I decided not to press anymore about what happened. It was a while before Damon dug a deep enough hole for us to dump the body, which Charlie avoided like the plague. "Alright." Damon said after pushing the body into the deep hole. "I dug, you bury." He handed the shovel to Charlie, but I shot him a look and took it instead, shoveling dirt back into the makeshift grave.

Once I finished, I shoved the shovel back into Damon's hands. "So that's it? Just bury the body and move on?"

"Well that and if it's pinned on 'accidental manslaughter' over here, just tell the police he was with you at the pageant." Damon said. "Let's go back, I'll drive you guys home."

Once we got back, we all sat down in the unnecessarily large living room of the Salvatore Boarding House. "Where's Stefan?" I asked.

"Doing time in the basement." He said. His phone started ringing and he answered it after leaving the room.

I glanced toward Charlie who was sitting on the couch, not looking up from the dark floorboards, then looked at the staircase leading downstairs. "I'll be right back." Slowly, I rose from my seat on the old couch and crept towards the open door to the basement. Just as I was about to step through the door, it was closed and locked right before my eyes. I looked over to see Damon standing next to the door.

"There is no way I'm going to let you down there with an unstable vampire." Damon said. "If something happened, Elena would stake me... twice for good measure."

"Fine." I grumbled, walking back to the couch. "Just tell me when he's okay again. History class is gonna be so boring."

"You seem incredibly well adjusted." Damon raised an eyebrow.

"I'm used to change." I said calmly. "Who called anyway? It's not like you have friends."

"Rude." He rolled his eyes. "It was Alaric. We're gonna follow a lead in the morning. Which reminds me, shouldn't you be going home? It's two in the morning."

"Okay mom." I mocked. Though, when I looked over at Charlie, who was dozed off over the arm of the sofa, I sighed. "I guess... I do have to get him back." It took a while for me to take my eyes off of Charlie and stare at the floor. I had next to no motivation to do anymore walking.

Damon looked at me and rolled his eyes. "Any chance you could wake him up to get in the car?"

When we finally got home, I decided Charlie's parents could be dealt with in the morning. He needed a stress free area, and the Gilbert household was as close as it was gonna get. After we got out of the car and I begrudgingly thanked Damon for the ride, Charlie followed me to the door, his eyes drooping and his feet dragging. I got out my keys and opened the door, making a bit more noise than I intended. In a split second, Aunt Jenna came rushing to the front door.

"Nora! After the pageant I thought you were getting a ride back with Charlie and his parent or something, and then you texted me saying that you were walking back in the woods and you would be home late," She stopped to draw in a breath. "And after what happened, I just got so worried but I couldn't reach you! What happened?"

"I'm sorry, my phone died and Charlie and I were tired and it was dark. We managed to get lost, so we just made our way through the woods to the road." I said. "Luckily, Damon was driving past and gave us a ride back."

Jenna sighed with relief. "Well next time you see Damon, thank him for me." She ushered us both in and closed the door. "I can't believe this. I- I'm a horrible guardian."

"No, Jenna, you're not horrible, I am." I said. "I've been making this so hard for you lately and I'm sorry. And I'll make it up to you, but right now I'm really tired."

"Thanks kiddo." She smiled. "Now go to bed. And I expect you and Charlie to be exactly two feet apart the whole night."

"Ew, Jenna!" I laughed. "Charlie's sleeping on the couch!"

"Good." She said firmly, though she had a joking expression on her face.

I smiled and walked past her, helping Charlie, who was half asleep, to the couch, then going upstairs to sweet sleep which would turn into familiar nightmares.