Firework

Face To Face

I raised my groggy head from the soft moving pillow I was using and shielded my eyes from the sunlight. It burnt!

"You'll be a little sensitive to the light till my blood leaves your system." Damon told me as we walked. "You'll also be a bit stronger, a bit more emotional and probably able to hear better." He informed me while he lifted me into Alaric's car and set me down gently.

I groaned in protest as he pulled his arms away, he started chuckling at me. "Don't worry Wildcat, you'll have the chance to see me again real soon. I know you can't go without your daily Damon fix, after all I am awesome." His eye brows raised and the smirk was clear across his handsome face.

"I'm just complaining cause you're body fat is sooo comfy as a pillow." I replied with my own smirk as I rested my head against the soft leather of Ric's seats. God I was tired and I still ached.

Ric and Damon said a few words to each other before Ric climbed in and started driving us from Damon. It was pitiful but I almost ached to be away from him now, it was almost painful. Stupid over active hormones and stupid sexy vampires. In another part of my brain I was really hoping that Damon and Ric didn't stop being friends now just because of me. Their friendship was one that I didn't understand at all, but they both clearly needed it. And the best of all friendships were never understood by outside parties as far as I was concerned.

The drive back home was taken in tense silence, probably not helped by the fact that I was still sat in Damon's shirt and his boxers with my own clothes in a plastic bag at my feet. Though I was pretty sure that they had been ruined from my session with Laurent.

As soon as the car stopped outside the house Ric was round my side and helping me in to the house so fast it was almost supernatural. "Thanks." I muttered as he closed the front door behind us both.

"Bella! What happened? Are you okay?" Elena asked rushing forward. "Why the hell did you run off in the morning? Have you got a death wish or something?" She said as she put an arm under my shoulder and helped me to the couch. "And what are you wearing?" I couldn't help the chuckle that escaped me at that, trust Bonnie, Caroline and Elena to worry about what I was wearing, I loved that, even in the midst of terror and madness they managed to keep things normal somehow.

"I think we all want to know why you thought you'd run off alone in the middle of the night!" Alaric glared at me.

"I wasn't running off." I said quietly, upset that I'd made everyone worry about me, that I'd pissed Ric off, especially when all they'd done is look after me and look out for me. Another worry started up, a deep seated fear that I wasn't sure that I'd ever get over; maybe they'd decide that I wasn't worth it, worth the trouble anymore, what if they wanted me gone? I don't know if I could do that anymore, if I could leave another life and another family behind.

"Then what were you doing?" Jenna asked me, seeming to be every bit as annoyed as Alaric was. But underneath that, in her eyes I could see concern and hurt.

"I just..." Deep sigh, big girl attitude, not a wall flower, have your own opinions and don't be scared of them. These things that I'd learnt to be, learnt to become, I channelled them so I could answer my family. "I just needed to be alone, to have time to think. So I went for an early morning job. I wasn't running away."

"An early morning run!" Alaric said with a snort letting me know just what he thought of that idea while running a hand through his hair.

"I know it was stupid..." I started saying.

"Well as long as she knows she was stupid! Alaric raised his voice, threw his arms up in the air and turned his back on me, anger strong in his voice.

"I needed some time to think, to be on my own Ric, I'm sorry I worried you guys, I really am." I said, my guilt making tears spring to my eyes. "But you've gotta understand my need for space, to be on my own for half an hour, surely." A tear broke through my barriers and slid down my cheek.