Chapter 8 ~ Complications

Stefan was downstairs pacing around waiting to confront his brother. What was he thinking? Has he lost his mind?
Damon walked down the stairs and into the livingroom. He could tell by the look on Stefan's face he was angry but also disappointed.
Damon wasn't sure he was in the mood for this right now, so he walked past him and into the kitchen to grab a beer.
Stefan followed him into the kitchen.
"What the hell is wrong with you, Damon?" he yelled.
Damon turned to look at his brother, giving him an evil look. "What do you mean?"
"Are you seriously going to play stupid, brother?" He paused for a sec than added, "Because it doesn't suit you."
Damon looked at his brother shrewdly but didnt answer. Instead he took a drink from his beer.
"Are you going to answer me, Damon?" Stefan continued on.
"Why don't you just tell me what's up your ass now, Stefan?" Damon yelled in retaliation, "Cause I'm getting sick of your attitude as of late."
With that Damon threw his bottle of beer against the wall behind Stefan, where it shattered into tiny shards.
Stefan just stared at his brother as if he hadn't just seen him smash the bottle against the kitchen wall.
"What were you thinking by sharing blood with Vella?"
Damon narrowed his eyes at Stefan, then began to walk past his brother towards the livingroom.
As he walked past, Stefan grabbed Damon by the shoulder.
Damon slapped his brother's hand away and continued to walk into the livingroom.
Stefan followed right behind him. "Damon, I'm not going to let this go."
Damon turned around to face his brother, he had already been angry but now he was seething. "What I do is none of your business! When the hell are you going to learn that?"
"I'm afraid that isn't true, Damon," Stefan stated calmly.
"Well enlighten me then, BROTHER!"
"Did you even think of the consequences, Damon?" Stefan asked, "No, of course not, you never do. When will you ever learn?"
Damon walked closer to Stefan with a raised fist. "I'm not explaining myself to you, or anyone for that matter. All that matters to me right now is, Vella."
"Damon, if those vampires had killed her, she would be a vampire right now," Stefan said. "Did you even think of that?"
Damon unclenched his fist and put his hand down beside him.
"I know, Stefan. You don't have to remind me," Damon replied in a defeated voice.
Stefan had never heard his brother back down so easily. What was going on between him and Vella, he wondered.
Damon couldn't think straight with all the conflicting emotions he was feeling. He was angry, not only at the vampires, but at himself as well.
Damon had failed Vella when she really needed him the most and he hated himself for it.
Stefan placed his hand on Damon's shoulder in a supportive gesture. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he had never seen his brother act like this before.
Damon shrugged his brother's hand off his shoulder, turned and sat down on the couch and Stefan sat beside him.
As calmly as he could, Damon explained to his brother all that he knew, leaving out a few of the more personal details.
Stefan listened intently to his brother's story, wondering what the vampires could possibly want. But he figured, since Vella's mother was a witch, that it must be some magical artifact they were after. If that was it, Stefan couldn't allow them to find what they were looking for.
Damon was silently grateful for his brother's presence. He wasn't sure what would have happened if he hadn't had Stefan to turn to, but he would never admit that to his brother.
After he was done discussing things with Stefan, Damon went upstairs to sit at Vella's bedside.
Damon sat beside Vella, almost unmoving until she began to stir a few hours later.




Vella opened her eyes a little, trying to see where she was. She was in pain and couldn't quite remember anything. When her eyes finally focused, she was greeted by Damon's worried face.
As Vella tried to roll over to her side, she winced in pain.
"Don't move, Vella," Damon whispered.
Vella was in too much pain to argue. She suddenly began to remember her last moments before she had passed out, which caused her to start breathing a little too heavily with panic.
Damon cupped one side of her face gently with his hand and whispered, "Don't worry, you're safe here."
Vella wasn't quite sure where 'here' was, but she knew she could trust him, so she did as he asked.
Damon made sure she would be okay for a minute and left to go downstairs to find his brother.
Stefan was is in the livingroom, now joined by his girlfriend, Elena.
Damon walked by them, into the kitchen to grab Vella a glass of water.
Elena followed Damon into the kitchen. She wanted to find out if he was okay, but he wasn't really in the mood to talk.
Damon excused himself and headed back up up to his bedroom.
He thought Vella was asleep again, but she opened her eyes when he walked in the room.
Damon put the glass of water on the table beside the bed and asked her if she wanted some. Vella was thirsty, so Damon helped sit her up carefully and handed her the glass.
Vella took the glass ardently, she felt like she was dying of thirst. She drank down the whole glass, but her thirst wasn't quenched, so she asked Damon for more.
Damon was unwilling to leave her side again, so he yelled downstairs for his brother, hoping he wouldn't mind bringing up a glass of water.
It was Elena who brought the water to Damon.
Damon gave Elena a smile of thanks and turned his attention back to Vella.
Elena figured he wasn't going to tell her anything, so she left to give them some privacy.
Vella drank down the second glass of water. She felt better after finishing this glass.
Vella's head was swimming though, with all kinds of memories. Some were about what happened the night before and some were from her past. She was trying to sort them all out, but it felt like a floodgate had been opened and she couldn't close it.
Damon tried comforting Vella, but he wasn't sure how. Instead, he just sat by her waiting until she needed help.
Vella began crying inconsolably, which worried Damon. She didn't really seem to be herself, she seemed panicked, so Damon did the only thing he thought would help her relax, he compelled her.
Vella relaxed enough that she began to doze off, which helped Damon relax as well. He had hated compelling her, but he would ask her for her forgiveness later when she was back to normal.
Damon gently crawled into the bed beside Vella, and closed his eyes. He was listening to the rhythm of her heartbeat, when he himself dozed off.


Damon was awoken a short while later by his brother, Stefan.
Stefan told his brother the police were at the door looking for him and he needed to come downstairs and talk to them.
Damon got up and made sure Vella was okay, before he went down the stairs.
The town sheriff was waiting downstairs for Damon. He had dealt with her in the past and figured he would be able to get rid of her easily enough.
The sheriff was concerned about Vella. The police had found her house broken into, trashed and with no sign of Vella. She had been told by witnesses that the last person she had been seen with was Damon.
Damon told Sheriff Forbes, that he had come to visit Vella and found her house trashed, so he had went in search of her and brought her to the boarding house to make sure she would be safe.
Sheriff Forbes didn't totally believe Damon's story, but she never had a reason to mistrust him in the past. Since Damon said she was sleeping from her ordeal, she told him she would come back to talk to Vella the next day when she was feeling better.
After the sheriff had left, Damon began to pace a few steps back and forth thinking. He suspected something big was going on and the Founder's Council probably knew what that might be and he needed to know what that was.
Stefan was not pleased by the appearance of the sheriff either. He knew this must involve the town and that could get dicey for him and his brother. They weren't suspected of being vampires, at least not yet, but it wouldn't be that difficult to figure it out.
After Damon was done pacing, he went back up to his room to lay with Vella and promptly fell asleep once again.




It was late in the afternoon when Damon was awakened by Vella thrashing around in the bed. She was actually still asleep, so he tried talking to her in gentle whispers to calm her down, but it didn't work. Damon figured the only way was to wake her up.
Damon called her name a few times and the thrashing subsided.
Vella's eyes then opened. She was disoriented at first, but when she saw Damon's worried face and heard his soothing voice, she was suddenly aware.
Vella sighed and then wrapped her arms tightly around Damon. Tears started to flow slowly at first, then much more quickly.
Damon held her as hard as he could without hurting her. He wanted her pain to stop but nothing he said seemed to help.
Damon eventually asked her if he could compel her to help, but she said no.
It took Vella a few more minutes to calm down enough so she could talk.
Vella told Damon she was hungry and thirsty, so he went down to make her food. Elena was still there, so he asked for her help since he wasn't sure what she would need to eat.
Elena was silently amused. Damon never usually admitted not knowing everything.
Elena made some chicken noodle soup for Vella and brought it up to Damon's room.
When Elena walked in, she was surprised to see Damon and Vella holding each other. She put the tray with the soup, some crackers, an apple and some milk on the table beside the bed and excused herself.
Damon thanked Elena for her help.
Elena just gave him a nod and left to be with Stefan.
Vella ate and drank and began to feel much better, which pleased Damon. He had been so sick with worry he hadn't even eaten in almost two days. He knew that he needed to real soon.
When Vella was finished eating, she asked Damon to show her to the washroom so she could clean herself up.
Damon helped her out of bed carefully, stopping to let her catch her balance.
Vella winced at the pain from her waist. It wasn't as bad as it should be, she thought. How was that possible?
Damon helped Vella down the hallway and into the washroom. She asked if he could run her a bath, she felt dirty.
Damon ran her water, helped her out of her clothes and then lifted her into the tub. He yelled down to Elena, asking her to bring some clothes up for Vella.
Vella checked out the wounds on her side. They seemed to be healing rather quickly, which had her stumped. She was a nurse and had never seen anything like it.
Vella questioned Damon about this, but he tried to change the subject.
"Damon, please," Vella pleaded with him. "What's going on?"
Damon didn't want her to worry, so he explained how his blood was helping to heal her quicker than she normally would.
Vella was relieved to hear that she wasn't a vampire, she had been worried she had died, but now she felt silly for thinking that.
Elena had brought some clothes up for Vella. She had gone out earlier with Damon's credit card and bought some things for her.
"I had Elena get you some clothes because the police were at your house and they wouldn't let us in."
Vella was very grateful to both Damon and Elena. She knew she couldn't go home again, at least not without Damon.
After Vella was clean and freshly dressed, she wanted to go outside for some fresh air.
Damon didn't want to do this since it was dark, but he had promised her, so he took her out for a few minutes.
Vella was quiet as they walked. All she could do was run the memories of her past through her head. The vampire attack had triggered old memories of the night her parents were killed, only they weren't the same memories she had remembered for the last 8 years.
Vella decided against discussing this with Damon, until she was feeling up to talking. She had to come to terms with being lied to for years by people whom she had trusted.
Damon took the time to tell her about the sheriff, which he noticed seemed to upset Vella. He was suddenly aware she was keeping something from him. His first instincts were to compel her so he could know what it was here and now, but he didn't want to be that kind of person with Vella. He figured she would tell him eventually, when she was ready.
Damon took Vella back inside the house. He asked his brother Stefan, if he would look after her while he was gone.
Stefan reluctantly agreed. He knew why he had to go out and wouldn't have denied him.
Vella didn't want him to leave, but she knew he needed to feed. He had told her it had been two days, which worried her. So she agreed to stay with Stefan and Elena and behave herself.
Damon chuckled silently when she said she would behave herself. It wasn't long ago he muttered those exact words to Vella in her own house.


While Damon was out hunting for food, he also hunted for the vampires. He knew they couldn't be too far, but they seemed to be adept at hiding.
He didn't search for them very long, not wanting to leave Vella alone.
While Damon was hunting, he found two young women out alone. It took all of his self control not to kill the both of them and totally drain them of blood.
Instead he took what he needed without hurting them and neither would remember a thing.


When Damon arrived home, he found his brother, Elena and Vella playing cards together. They seemed to be having a good time, which helped Damon relax, if only a little.
Damon watched them play for awhile, not wanting to play himself. When it was getting too late, Damon convinced Vella to go up to bed. She would need her rest for her visit with the sheriff the next day.
"Are you going to sleep in the bed with me tonight?" Vella asked Damon when they got to his room.
Damon gave her one of his coy smiles and said, "Only if you want me to."
Vella gave him a smile back and told him it was the only way she was going to bed, so he relented.
Damon and Vella fell asleep holding each other tightly.