SEASON ONE — EPISODE EIGHTEEN
"𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙤𝙣, 𝙗𝙖𝙗𝙮"

‧˚꒰🍷꒱༘‧—

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'✦ ˑ ִֶ 𓂃⊹ WEARING A TIGHT, LAST MINUTE MAROON DRESS with a pair of black heeled boots and her hair tied back into a loose bun was not an ideal outfit for a Founder's party. But, she rolled with it and stayed by Stefan's side as his support the entire time, even having to endure Damon's painful remarks every two minutes.

They stepped up onto the porch of the Lockwood Mansion, Brooke's eyes scanned the waiters for drinks, Stefan's eyes scanned the people and Damon just sighed, waving hello to a few of the people he knew from the Founder's council.

"Oh, God. I shouldn't be here." Stefan panicked and Brooke looked over at him with a look of sympathy, placing a hand on his shoulder in hopes it would soothe his nerves — which, unbeknownst to her, it did.

"Come on. Don't be a downer. It's a party for founding families. That would be us. It would be rude to skip it." Damon explained, leading the way inside of the heavily decorated building filled with people chattering loudly with drinks in their hands.

"I really liked you a whole lot better when you hated everybody." Stefan itched as he spoke, his hands trembling and flying everywhere. He scratched his neck, his head, his arm, the back of his hands until suddenly, Brooke placed her hand on his forearm with a soft smile on her face, causing his panicked manner to ease.

"Oh, I still do. I just love that they love me." Damon looked around at the people, his eyes trailing over to his brother momentarily before looking away, "How you feeling?"

"I'm okay, actually." Stefan smiled softly, his eyes flickering down to Brooke's hand, knowing that was the reason for his sudden feeling of calmness radiating through him.

"Really? No cravings, no urges?" Damon raised a brow, a look of amusement on his face and Brooke looked over at him, knowing he couldn't care less, "Is that whiskey you've been drinking all day been doing it's job?"

Then, Brooke looked over at Stefan, a brow raised and Stefan let out a defeated sigh, knowing what was to come, "What?" She asked, removing her hand from his arm, causing a pang in his heart, though he didn't show it.

"You didn't know? He's been trying to fight it all day. We are who we are, pretending doesn't change that." Damon shrugged, his eyes trailing up towards the balcony in the middle of the large house where people were stood.

Brooke stared at the side of Stefan's face, waiting for him to look at her but he refused, knowing he'd cave if he did, "Nothing would make you happier than to just see me give in, huh, Damon?" Stefan avoided the topic, turning his head to face Damon and Brooke swallowed the lump in her throat, looking down at her boots with a saddened expression.

If he didn't want to go to her, if he didn't trust her enough to help him, then there wasn't much she could do.

"Whatever. It's inevitable." Damon avoided his gaze before he strolled off towards someone he'd spotted in the crowd, leaving the two alone.

Stefan's eyes then trailed over to Brooke as she continued to stare down at her boots, clearly upset by his rejection and distrust in her but when she felt his shoulder nudge hers lightly, she looked up, meeting his eyes, "Look, I was gonna call you but I had it under control."

"You say that but you never do." She told him, a sincere, concerned look on her face. She was really worried about him, more than usual and he couldn't help but melt at the look in her eyes, the care she had for him made him weak at the knees. Elena had never looked at him like that before.

"I promise I'll call you next time." Stefan smiled a little towards her and she nodded, half—believing him. Of course, she trusted him, she just didn't know whether she should after everything but she supposed she was the one to give him her blood, so it was her problem to deal with.

"I'm sorry, this is all my fault. I was the one who gave you my blood." She glanced down at her boots again but he quickly shook his head in disagreement, she'd already apologised about that.

"No, no. You saved my life, Brooke, and I'll never be able to thank you enough for that." Stefan explained like he had before just as Elena strolled through the doorway leading through the entrance and the living room.

"Hey, guys." Elena approached, stopping on the other side of Stefan, who leaned forwards to give his girlfriend a hug and a kiss to her cheek but when he looked back over at his best—friend, Brooke had rushed off to find a drink, any drink.

As she made her way down the hallway, her eyes scanned the posh people engaged in conversation, she knew this wasn't her crowd but she shrugged it off nonetheless, entering the office on the other side of the house.

Her eyes immediately locked onto Tyler and Matt, who were both taking turns with a rather large vodka bottle in the dark doorway which led to another huge room filled with people. She rushed over and snatched the bottle from Matt's hand, immediately taking a large sip of the clear drink and she winced when she felt a sharp burn down the back of her throat.

"Hey!" Tyler complained, snatching the bottle back from her and she let out a snort, rolling her eyes. Matt sent his male best—friend a glare, unappreciative of the tone in his voice.

"Don't talk to her like that."

"Oh, so now you care about my feelings?" Brooke scoffed towards Matt, absentmindedly taking the bottle back again from Tyler and she took another sip, only this time the Lockwood boy didn't stop her.

"What do you even mean?" Matt scrunched up his face, taking offence whilst Tyler calmly took the bottle back, both him and Brooke taking turns.

"You need to watch yourself, Donovan. You're still dating my best—friend, remember?" Brooke deadpanned, wincing every time she took a sip of the alcohol, feeling herself becoming dizzier with every taste.

"So?"

"So, stop this little thing with Elena. I know your silly crush is coming back." Brooke now rolled her eyes, her hand reaching out for the vodka bottle, but her fingers moved through the air, nothing in reach. Her eyes snapped over to where Tyler was, only for Tyler to have disappeared and she furrowed her brows, glancing around the room, "Where'd he go?"

"Look, Brooke. My crush on Elena has always been there, Caroline knew that." Matt explained, a hurt expression on his face as he watched his childhood best—friend cross her arms over her chest with a sense of authority.

"Yeah, well you know how she is. She wouldn't even care if you had a girlfriend, that's how desperate she is for validation." Brooke explained, standing her ground. While she hated lashing out on him after he'd gone through so much, to stay loyal and to keep the friendship strong, they had to talk through their issues.

"I guess you're right. I'll sort it out, okay? You don't have to worry about it." Matt reassured, placing a hand on her shoulder and she squinted her green eyes towards him momentarily before her expression softened, his face becoming blurry.

"Okay, I trust you." She told him, nodding and he then wrapped his arm around her shoulders, guiding her out of the office where they could hear Still Into You by Paramore playing from the main room/dance floor, where she expected nobody to be dancing in. They were way too classy for that.

Brooke stumbled just a tad on the way, but when the song began to blast into her ears and she saw Stefan dancing with Kelly, she rolled her eyes, standing up straight, "What a coincidental song choice." Brooke muttered sarcastically as Jenna and Elena approached, their eyes on Stefan and Kelly. Elena and Matt smiled towards one another, which caused a pit in Brooke's stomach, she was way too drunk for all of it, for any drama, for anything.

So, doing what she usually did, she hid her feelings and walked away, beginning to dance along to the song she loved without a care in the world, without thinking too deeply about anything. She sang along to the lyrics drunkenly, a smile of bliss on her lips and her eyes closed as she swayed when she felt fingers wrap around her wrists, someone dancing with her.

But, once she felt a cold ring brush against the back of her hand, she knew who it was. Her eyes snapped open, locking onto Stefan's, the two dancing to the song together, both drunk and both trying to ignore the pain they currently felt deep down, "How are you doing?" Brooke asked as they danced, his hands still clutched gentle yet firmly onto her wrists and he shook his head, his smile never leaving.

"A more important question, how are you? You seem sad!" Stefan spoke up over the loud music in order for her to hear and she furrowed her brows, immediately denying his assumption but before she opened her mouth to reply, his hands reached up to the clip holding her hair in the bun, pulling it out, "Let your hair down, be free! Let loose for a night. All you do is constantly care about everyone else, think about yourself for once!"

Brooke shook her head, watching as he placed her clip in the pocket of her trousers, "I'm only here to keep an eye on you, Stefan." She told him, her dancing stopped as another song began to play and Stefan rolled his eyes playfully, a smirk slapped on his lips.

"Yeah, and I'm right here, you can still have fun." Stefan grabbed ahold of her hands and began to pull her to the centre of the dance floor, twirling her around and dancing with her. Brooke tried to resist for a little while, but the alcohol in her system betrayed her and her stubbornness slowly dissipated. She began to dance with him, too, letting out a laugh as her long hair blew into her face, but she couldn't care less, feeling happy for the first time in a while.

They jumped around to the rock music, unbothered by the people around them, by the world around them, even unbothered by each other, both in their own worlds. Elena and Matt were dancing together nearby, but even they couldn't keep their eyes off of the pair. Elena was baffled, she'd never seen either of them acting so... freely and happily, and whilst that was supposed to be something to feel joy about, Elena felt the complete opposite — she felt nauseous, sick to her stomach and she was unsure of why.

So, Matt decided to guide Elena outside to get some fresh air, Stefan and Brooke unbeknownst to it all.

But, just as Stefan span Brooke around in a circle for the second time, she accidentally bumped into someone, causing her to almost trip over onto her ass if not for Stefan's grip on her hands, "Woah, watch it!" The guy snapped, wiping down his blazer jacket with a glare as Brooke spun around to look at him.

"Woah, I'm sorry." Brooke glanced around, noticing nobody had noticed the interaction and that caused a sense of relief in her, glad no scenes were being created.

"You better be." He snapped once again, causing Brooke's eyes to widen, though she was way too drunk to comprehend or to argue. But, being drunk only numbed Stefan's thirst, nothing else.

"What did you say?" Stefan took a step forwards in front of Brooke, grabbing ahold of the man's collar aggressively and that was when Brooke wanted nothing more than to abort the entire situation.

"I said she better be sorry." The man replied with a roll of his eyes, a rude tone constantly hearable through his tone and Brooke scoffed, placing a hand on Stefan's shoulder, pulling him back lightly.

"Walk away, jackass." She glared towards him and he waited for Stefan to let go of his collar before he sassily rolled his eyes once again.

"Whatever." He muttered before manoeuvring through the dancing people and Stefan took a step forwards to follow him, only for Brooke to grab ahold of his suit blazer, pulling him back.

"Nuh—uh. You stay right here, I really don't need to deal with your anger problems right now. You'll only make things worse." She explained and he nodded, staring at the side of her face as she glanced around the room when he suddenly heard commotion coming from the other room.

"There's a fight happening." Stefan told her, making his way into the other open room where the commotion was happening, Brooke hot on his tail but when they entered the hallway, there was blood everywhere. Well, not everywhere, but Kelly Donovan was sat on the floor just in front of them, a gash on the centre of her forehead, Matt was lying in the middle of the room with multiple wounds across his face, a worried Elena hovered over him and Tyler was held up against the wall by Alaric with a few bruises of his own.

Kelly stood from where she was sat as shouting continued around the room and turned to face Brooke and Stefan, almost bumping into the vampire. But, Kelly was clearly out of it, drunker than humanly possible and when her eyes landed on Brooke, instead of scowling, she sent her a look of guilt.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to." Kelly murmured as Brooke stared back at her, unsure of what to say. The aforementioned teenager took a step forwards and looked over the Donovan woman's shoulder, making sure everything was under control. Tyler was being taken out of the room by Mayor Lockwood and Elena was leading Matt out ironically, meaning they were left with a sobbing Kelly, "What are you doing?" The woman spoke in a confused tone and Brooke's head snapped back in their direction, her blurry eyes widening when she noticed Stefan's fingers connected with the woman's bloodied forehead.

"Shit." Brooke rushed forwards and placed her hands on Stefan's shoulders, pushing him backwards with a look of concern in her eyes. Stefan's hand, which was now smeared in Kelly's blood, was trembling between them, his eyes locked onto the blood like it was a drug he was battling the addiction of, "Look at me, for God's sake."

Stefan reluctantly looked up from his hand to her eyes, his hand beginning to calm just a tad and when Brooke glanced back in Kelly's direction, the woman was stumbling away in the opposite direction.

"Time to use the bathroom." Brooke let out a sigh, pulling Stefan towards the nearest bathroom, having guessed where it'd be considering she'd hardly ever been in the Lockwood mansion, only a few times for parties or when she was hooking up with Tyler all those years ago.

A minute or two later, Stefan was dragged into a small bathroom and Brooke locked the door behind them before she turned on the faucet, grabbing paper towels from by the toilet. When she spun back around to run the tissue under the water, she saw Stefan lifting his fingers to lick the blood, causing her to gasp.

"Hey, don't give in to it, Stefan." She slapped his hand back down, running the tissue under the running warm water before quickly wiping the blood from his hand, "Just hold your breath for a few seconds and it'll all go away, okay?" She stared him in the eyes, waiting for him to nod before he completely stopped breathing, his eyes locked onto her as she worked as quickly as she could.

Brooke wiped the blood from his hands and the dried parts stuck in the cracks of his daylight ring before throwing the bloodied tissues down the toilet, flushing.

"All done." She looked back up at him as she dried his hands using a towel from on the radiator, a gentle smile upon her lips. Nobody would be able to assume she was drunk in that moment, but she was and when it came to her friends being in danger, serious danger, she would push everything aside, everything.

"Thanks." Stefan gripped onto the edge of the sink counter as she put the towel back, squeezing his eyes closed. If it wasn't for her, he would've relapsed, he would've sucked that blood off of his fingers and felt that strong desire to rip someone's head off once again.

Yeah, maybe he did constantly feel that way, but he knew after starving himself off of it for so long, it would help, at least just a little.

They left the bathroom after a minute or two and as Brooke guided Stefan out towards the front door whilst Mayor Lockwood had everyone gathered into one room on the left side of the mansion to watch John Gilbert ring that stupid bell, a bruised up Matt approached.

"Brooke." He called out and Brooke glanced between her two best—friends, a little worried.

"Just wait outside for me?" She asked Stefan, a reassuring smile on her face and he nodded hesitantly before making his way out of the mansion, leaving Matt and Brooke alone.

"Brooke, she's doing it again." Matt looked down at his shoes, clearly distraught and Brooke was conflicted, her brain completely panicked.

"Who? Your Mom?" She raised a brow, knowing that this was going to happen.

"Yeah, she was making out with Tyler. She's been bringing guys back. I'm thinking about just kicking her out." Matt opened up, clenching his bruised hand, only to wince when a sharp pain shot up his arm.

"Maybe that'd be for the best. She was making out with Tyler? Isn't he seventeen?" Brooke scrunched up her face in disgust, the situation only adding to the long list of reasons for why she hated Kelly's guts.

Matt let out a tired sigh, nodding but before he could reply, Brooke stepped forwards, wrapping her arms around him tightly.

"Right now, I'm pretty drunk and Stefan's having a... an anxiety attack, so I have to be there for him. But, if anything happens, just ring me or... I mean, you could try ringing Caroline for a change?" Brooke suggested. The poor girl had so much on her plate currently, her mind was going at a hundred miles an hour and she wasn't sure how much she could take. Of course, if Matt needed her, she'd be there in a split second no matter what, but if it isn't as urgent, Caroline was his girlfriend for a reason.

"Maybe, I'll see. I'll let you go." Matt smiled slightly, pulling away from the hug and Brooke assessed his injuries momentarily before taking a step back.

"Make sure you put some ice on that." She told him with a point of her finger, causing him to let out a low chuckle before she rushed out of the house.

And as if she didn't have enough problems, she found Stefan stood in the thankfully empty driveway with his hand clamped over another man's hand — the man from earlier on the dance floor — crushing his bones slowly.

Her eyes were wide as she ran over in her heeled boots, almost breaking her ankle on her way down the steps and across the gravel. Her hand landed on top of Stefan's forearm and the aforementioned boy immediately let go of the guy's hand, allowing him to fall back onto the floor beside a random Jeep.

"I'm gone two seconds..." Brooke glanced over at the terrified man on the floor before her fingers curled around Stefan's elbow, dragging him towards his car, "Oh, how I wish Lexi was here to help me." Brooke let out a tired sigh as they approached the red sports car, she'd heard all about Stefan and Lexi's story, how they met, how Lexi helped him, she knew almost everything about Stefan's backstory.

Nobody really knew why she did, why he felt so comfortable to tell her his darkest secrets, his worst moments, his days as a ripper, or why he even let her read his diaries from time to time. There was just something about Brooke Elliot, whilst some chose to dislike her, others chose to love her.

She had a sharp tongue, she was blunt and straightforward most of the time, but underneath her hard exterior was a whole ton of love and care for everyone she loved. Maybe Stefan saw through the hard exterior, the wall she constantly put up and saw her soft interior, the part that only the people who chose to love her were blessed to see.

Brooke spent the entire night — with a hangover — looking after Stefan, making sure he didn't regress or even feel the urge to drink human blood. She was there with him the entire time, distracting him whenever his thoughts became too much, somehow sensing his overthinking with just a mere glance all up until he fell asleep beside her on his bed.

Not only beside her, but with his head on her lap as Hunger Games played on the tv at the end of the bed, snoring quietly, completely at peace. And even with a huge headache, she still managed to smile and enjoy the moment of relaxation, seeing her tormented best—friend finally getting the moment of tranquility he deserved.

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