Changing For The Better

Chapter 16

Chapter 16: 1864 all over again

Caroline approaches her best friend. "Easy there, Stef," Caroline says as she watches him down another drink.

"Care..." Stefan says softly.

"What's wrong?" Caroline asks him concerned.

He stares off into the distance. "It's like 1864 all over again... I can't do it again. First Katherine then Elena, now Katherine again. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. What's it going to be when I'm the fool for a third time?"

"Stef... What are you talking about?" Caroline asks, squeezing his shoulder lightly.

"It's Damon again... Katherine and Damon are hiding something," Stefan says sadly.

"Don't be silly, they hate each other," Caroline furrows her eyebrows.

"No, they don't... Not anymore. Something happened when I left them alone... It's all my fault. At first, I thought that maybe they were going to be civil or get along... But now I see them flirting and he's showing up to doctor appointments and when I asked if they were hiding something, she lied to me," Stefan says, somewhere between angry and sad. She pulls him into a hug.

"It's just... I thought she was finally changing but I was wrong," Stefan sighs.

"I don't think you were wrong," Caroline admits, "She's different and I don't think Damon's the reason for that... I think you are." He looks up at her.

"I know you've been through this before... But it's different now, you're a different person. If she's playing you again then you have the strength to walk away from her and I am your best friend so I will be there for you. If she's not and this is some misunderstanding, then you need to fix this."

"You're right," Stefan admits, "But I don't think I'm ready to go home yet. Will you wait with me?" Caroline smiles at him and nods. He shoots her a grateful look, and they order another round.

Damon grabs a plate from the kitchen and hands it to Katherine who begins piling food onto it. She starts stuffing her mouth.

"Why didn't you tell Stefan the truth?" Damon narrows his eyes at her suspiciously.

"I... I just didn't want to betray your trust. I was trying to make up for what I did in the past and spilling all of your secrets to your brother seemed like a crappy way to start," Katherine admits.

"So, you did all of this to protect me?" Damon asks surprised. She nods and looks away from him.

"Thank you," Damon says sincerely, "I didn't want to believe it but Blondie was right when she said you were changing... About our secret, you don't have to hide it from Stefan. I'm okay with telling him."

Her eyes start to tear up. "Sorry... Hormones," Katherine starts to apologize but Damon pulls her into a hug.

"Well, isn't this just fucking lovely?" Stefan remarks upon seeing them and hearing the end of their conversation.

"Stefan..." Damon starts off, trying to calm his brother down.

"Save it, brother," Stefan says bitterly.

"I can't believe you did this again," Stefan narrows his eyes at Katherine and starts advancing towards, "I mean him I can believe, after all he did it twice..." Damon flinches at his brother's words. He stands in front of Katherine protectively and his brother glares at him before turning his attention back to Katherine.

"But you... You said it was always going to be me. You're a fucking great liar, Katherine Pierce. And I'm the fool once again," Stefan chuckles darkly.

"Stefan..." Katherine says, ready to explain.

"No," Stefan shakes his head, "Fuck you Katherine and fuck you too, Damon. In fact, why don't the two of you fuck each other?" He uses vampire speed to go up to his room and slams the door.

Katherine starts moving towards the staircase, but Damon stops her. "Don't... He's incredibly drunk right now. It would be better if you talked to him in the morning."

She frowns but nods and Damon leads her to a spare room close to his. She spends the night tossing and turning.

She watches the sun rise and heads downstairs to find some food to eat. Jeremy stayed over at Matt's last night which means it's just her eating breakfast this morning. Suddenly she's hit with a heavenly aroma and races to the kitchen to find Damon making pancakes.

"What are you doing?" Katherine asks surprised.

"Making breakfast, duh," Damon responds without looking up.

"I thought you didn't use the kitchen," Katherine remarks suspiciously.

"Would you relax?" Damon rolls his eyes, "I'm not trying to poison you, I swear. See." He takes a pancake and stuffs it into his mouth. She lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"I just thought you could use a pick me up after last night," Damon shrugs.

"Oh... Well, thank you," Katherine smiles at him before digging into the pancakes.

"Well, isn't this lovely?" Stefan remarks sarcastically, "How very domestic." Her smile drops.

"Yeah, well after you were an ass last night, she didn't eat very much and I figured not eating wouldn't be great for the baby," Damon retorts.

Stefan's expression softens. "Is the baby..."

Katherine looks directly at him, "The baby is fine."

He stuffs his hands in his pockets. "Well, if the baby needs anything then let me know," Stefan says, his eyes never leaving hers.

"What if I need something?" Katherine raises her eyebrow.

His expression hardens again. "Then I'm sure Damon wouldn't mind helping you out."

"Actually, Damon would mind, because Damon has plans today," Damon interjects. They look at him surprised.

"Speaking of... The two of you aren't going to leave this room until you figure your shit out... Bye," Damon says before speeding out.

"What is he..." Katherine starts to say as Stefan tries to leave the room. He hits an invisible wall.

"Shit," Stefan says rubbing his head, "He wasn't kidding. I wonder how he got this done..."

"Bonnie," Katherine points out.

"Why would she help him with this?" Stefan wonders aloud.

"Because she likes him even if she won't admit it and he definitely likes her," Katherine says.

"What are you talking about?" Stefan asks.

"That's the secret between Damon and I... He likes Bonnie and I was trying to help him," Katherine confesses.

"Oh..." Stefan says, "So you and Damon aren't..." She shakes her head.

"No, I wouldn't do that to you, not again. I meant it when I said it would always be you Stefan," Katherine steps closer towards him and cups his face in her hands, "I am so sorry for ever making you feel insecure about that especially because I know what you went through, twice. You need to trust me, Stefan. I'm not the person I was before, I swear."

"I... It's hard Katherine, but I'm going to work on trusting you, okay?" Stefan says before softly kissing her lips. She kisses him back and he pulls away a few moments later.

"How about I make up for yesterday by taking you somewhere fun?" Stefan offers.

"I would love that," Katherine smiles at him.