CAPTURED MY HEART, BODY & SOUL [1]

25 : THE RETURN

       Stefan was officially out of his mind. She had been about to leave the council meeting when she ran into Damon, who was outraged that his brother had tried to kill one of Klaus's hybrids, a man named Daniel, and did not seem to care that Klaus would have to drain Elena of her blood in order to create more hybrids. She couldn't believe that Stefan's humanity switch would be so fried, and it got even worse when he later revealed to have abducted Elena in order to get to Klaus, wanting to manipulate him into ordering the crossbreeds out of town. For a moment, Klaus hesitated, and it took everything inside of her to not slap the man across the face. He eventually gave in, with Stefan threatening to drive his car off of Wickery Bridge while forcing his bleeding wrist into the doppelganger's mouth. Damon then left her side to pick Elena up after Stefan abandoned her on the side of the road. Charlie went home, wondering how life had suddenly gotten so fucked up and what she could do to change it.

She didn't sleep when she went to bed that night. Eventually, Lily saw that her light was on and they cuddled up in Charlie's bed and watched a movie on the younger Prince's iPad. She couldn't resist feeling content at having her sibling at her side, half-hidden beneath the blankets. Lily was the first one to fall asleep, in the early hours of the morning, and Charlie told her when she woke up that she managed to catch a few herself, even if she didn't. She had work and didn't see any of her friends the whole day, merely texting them and avoiding another confrontation. She had dinner with Lily, Louis and Maggie, instead ordering takeout and a pizza than making anything herself. By the following day, she decided to stop pretending as if this mess didn't involve her and went to see Damon at the Salvatore Boarding House. She just needed those twenty four hours to herself and Damon assured her that he understood that when she told him.

She received a call from Bonnie a few days later in the early morning, just as Charlie had climbed out of the shower. Apparently, while Stefan was trying to get what he wanted from Klaus, Tyler was in the process of biting Caroline because Klaus had told him to. He healed her, but it didn't change anything. Charlie didn't think that she could hate the Original Hybrid anymore than she already did and he had to go wrong and prove her wrong. She could definitely hate him more. She agreed to meet two of her closest friends at the house Charlie hated, as she had had been having dreams about the coffin and needed to be able to talk to someone about it—so she called both Charlie and Elena. She wasn't surprised that Bonnie had decided to tell Elena about the coffins. If anything, she was stunned that Bonnie hadn't told her before. They told each other nearly everything.

She got dressed into a simple consisting of a black blazer and skirt and a blouse she had been given for her birthday last year, filling her travel mug with coffee before leaving the house and heading towards her car. But she stopped as her hand reached the door handle, seeing a familiar face on the front porch of the Harper household next door. She froze when she recognized him, and before she could stop herself, she had crossed the front lawn and driveway between them, finding herself in front of the house, playing with her fingers as she silently stared at Drew. His chocolate colored eyes locked with her blue ones, and she watched him swallow. She didn't know why she was even here. She was fairly certain she didn't want anything to do with Drew Harper anymore, anymore than she wanted to speak to Klaus. But here she was, approaching him first.

"So you finally came home?" She asked softly, still holding her coffee in her silver and red travel mug, the heat of her morning medicine warming her palm.

Drew looked almost the same as he did the last time Charlie had seen him—to his pale skin, gangly form and overgrown dark hair, he was the same teenager he always was. Except he had a cup beside him on the top step, and she didn't doubt what was in it. He wore an ivy colored Green Lantern t-shirt that seemed a size too small and a pair of old jeans, with bare feet and he had a jacket was hanging over the railing nearby. She missed the human Andrew she knew, and wondered if she could ever get used to and like the person he was now becoming as a vampire. She felt guilty for hating him when she didn't even know the man he was turning into.