Chapter Four: Night of the Comet Part B

By the time Stefan and Madeline arrived at town's square to watch the comet they were mostly dry. During the whole car drive Stefan opened up to her about some parts of his life, obviously leaving out the vampire part, and she willingly listened. He told her about Katherine and how him and Damon have a sort of patchy past.

Madeline told him about her little brother who just came back into town, but that was really it. She never really liked talking about her past. Especially about her sister. It might have happened a few years ago, but it still haunted her like a recurring bad dream. Except it wasn't a bad dream; it was real. She also didn't like talking about her parents. She didn't really have much of a relationship with them. After everything that's happened, the whole family changed and grew apart. However, Madeline and Max always stuck together.

Madeline and Stefan grabbed candles from one of the girls who were helping Caroline pass them out. Then Madeline noticed Elena looking their way with an almost sad expression on her face. Madeline looked over at Stefan who was looking at the sky.

"So many people think that it's some kind of harbinger of evil, but how could something so beautiful be evil?" Madeline told him while looking at the comet. Stefan looked over at her and asked, "What do you think it is?"

She paused for a second before answering, "I think it's just a ball of ice that got blamed for something terrible that happened when it came home."

It was silent for a second before Madeline abruptly turned towards Stefan, catching his attention. "You should go talk to Elena. I think Damon really got under her skin earlier today." She felt bad for Elena because she could tell that she seemed to like Stefan, but when Damon told her all of this stuff about Katherine and how he was looking for a rebound it must've messed with her head a little bit.

Stefan looked over at Elena who was looking his way, but as soon as he made eye contact with her she looked away. He knew he had fix whatever was going on between them, but a part of him didn't want to leave Madeline, because last time he did that she ended up in the woods being groped by Tyler.

He sighed before saying, "I think you're right. I won't be long."

Madeline nodded at him, giving him the go to go and talk to her and he complied. She watched as he walked up to Elena and got his candle lit. She smiled to herself before turning around and walking towards a secluded area on the grass, where it was quieter.

So many thoughts were going through her head, but she couldn't make out any of them. A big thought that was going through her head was that she was happy. Her brother was finally back and she even met a guy who turned out to be really nice. Everything was finally going right for her, for once. She hoped it could stay the way it was forever, but she knew it was inevitable that things would change eventually. She just prayed that it wasn't anytime soon.

"Hello, Madeline." Madeline jumped at the sudden voice she heard from behind her. She turned around and when she saw Damon she broke out into a smile.

"Jesus, you scared me." She told him, holding a hand to her chest to try and calm her heart down.

Damon smirked, as if that was his intention. "Sorry, I just saw you over here and wondered why you're all by yourself."

"I came with Stefan, but he's somewhere talking to Elena." She told him, weirdly getting nervous under his gaze, so she tried her best to look anywhere but his eyes.

"And here I thought you and him were having a little thing going on." Damon dug, obviously not having the best intentions.

Madeline laughed, "Stefan and I are just friends. He's way out of my league anyways." Damon found it ridiculous that she would think that. Elena was, indeed, very beautiful, but Madeline was something else. Something more, but in a different sort of way.

"That's ridiculous. You're beautiful, I'm sure Stef has a little crush on you, he just doesn't want to admit it." Damon told her and she couldn't help a blush from spreading across her cheeks when he called her beautiful, but she also thought about what he said about Stefan having a crush on her.

"How are you so sure? I mean, it's very clear that him and Elena have something going on." She pointed out looking over at where Stefan and Elena were looking up at the sky together.

"Yeah, he has taken an interest on Elena." Damon said, glancing over at the almost-couple as well before looking back over at Madeline, "But he'd be stupid to not like you." He added, using a finger to move a piece of hair out of her face and in that moment Madeline found it very difficult to look away from his steel blue orbs.

Over where Elena and Stefan were, they were too caught up in there conversation to notice Madeline or Damon or the moment they were having.

"You know, that comet...it's been traveling across space for thousands of years. All alone." Stefan says to Elena as they look at the sky.

"Yeah, Bonnie says it's a harbinger of evil." Elena told him.

"I think it's just a ball of...snow and ice, trapped on a path that it can't escape. And once every 145 years, it gets to come home. I'm sorry about yesterday. I wasn't myself." Stefan apologized.

"You seem to spend a lot of time apologizing."

"Well, I have a lot to apologize for. Yesterday, that wasn't about you, okay?"

"You didn't tell me that you had a brother." Elena pointed out. Stefan couldn't help, but feel a little bad, but in his defense, he didn't want anybody knowing about Damon. He was dangerous and Stefan didn't want to put the people in this town in danger. Especially Elena and Madeline.

"We're not close. It's, uh...it's complicated." Stefan scratched the back of his head.

"Always. He told me about your ex, Katherine." Stefan was surprised by that. He didn't remember Madeline mentioning that Damon said anything about Katherine.

"What did he say?"

"That she broke your heart."

"That was a long time ago." Then all of a sudden, something caught Stefan's eye. He saw Madeline standing with Damon. What made him angrier was that Damon stepped closer and moved a strand of hair from her face. He wasn't sure why that made him so angry, but watching Damon get so close to the girl he's grown fond of was frustrating.

"When you lose someone, it stays with you, always reminding you of how easy it is to get hurt." Elena said, bringing Stefan's gaze back to her. He looked at her for a second before looking back at where he just saw Madeline and Damon, but this time when he looked over they were gone.

He immediately panicked. His thoughts went straight to all the things Damon could do or say to her and he knew he needed to go looking for them.

"Elena...I'm uh, sorry. I have to go." He said, before walking off as quickly as he could, leaving Elena with hurt in her eyes.

Stefan started looked around Towns Square, hoping to see or hear Madeline. "Hey, Stefan." He heard a male voice greet him. He turned around and saw it was only Matt.

"Oh hey, Matt." He said back.

"Have you seen my sister? Nobody can find her." Matt asked him, clearly worried.

"No, sorry. I'll make sure to keep an eye out, though." Stefan assured him.

"I saw you at the hospital." Matt brought up. Stefan was surprised at first, but made sure not to show it.

"I was visiting." Stefan told him, basically lying through his teeth. Matt didn't look convinced at all.

"You know I've known Elena and Madeline my whole life. I look out for them. I'll always look out for them." Matt said, in an almost threatening voice. Stefan was going to respond, but the sounds of someone screaming filled his ears.

"You really have to stop screaming." Stefan heard his brother's voice. He turned his head and saw two figures standing on top of a roof.

"Excuse me." Stefan said to Matt before walking away.

Once Matt was out of sight, Stefan used his enhanced speed to run up to the roof.

"Not bad. Have you been eating bunnies?" Damon commented, amusingly.

"Let her go." Stefan instructed, referring to Vicki.

Damon shrugged his shoulders at his request, "Okay." he said simply, before pulling Vicki further to the edge of the building.

"No, no, no." Stefan said, attempting to stop Damon from what he was doing, while Vicki was pleading for Damon to let her go.

Damon rolled his eyes, "Ugh, relax," he said, throwing Vicki into Stefan's arms.

"Where is she?" Stefan asked, referring to Madeline.

"Who?" Damon asked innocently.

"You know exactly who. Don't play dumb." Stefan told him, growing angry.

"Don't worry Stef. I didn't hurt her. She told me she was heading home. I guess she didn't think it was important enough to tell you."

After the whole ordeal with Damon and Vicki, Stefan went to Elena's house to apologize for leaving so quickly. That whole conversation ended in them sharing a very confusing kiss. Well, only confusing on Stefan's part. He wasn't sure of his feelings for the doppelganger. Maybe it was because of the short blue eyed girl that had captured his attention, or maybe it was just because he was wrong about his feelings for Elena. Whatever it was, he knew he had to figure it out soon.

Meanwhile, he was on his way to Madeline's house. When he finally arrived he decided to knock on the front door opposed to the door that went to Madeline's room. After a few seconds the door swung open, but Madeline wasn't the one standing on the other side of the door. Instead, it was her kid brother, Max.

Stefan was startled for a second, but guessed that this was the brother Madeline had told him about. "Who are you?" Max asked, glaring up at Stefan.

"I'm uh, Stefan. Madeline's friend." Stefan told him, politely.

"Oh, she told me about you. You're the new guy in town right?" Max asked, softening his gaze.

"Yeah. Um, who are you?" Stefan asked, still not knowing the little boy's name.

"I'm Max, Madeline's kid brother." Max introduced.

"Maxy? Who are you talking too?" Madeline asked as she walked into the living room after hearing her brother talking to someone. When she saw her brother at the door talking to Stefan she froze for a second.

"Stefan. He's here to see you." Max told his older sister. Stefan looked up at Madeline who was now dressed in her pajamas with her hair messily tied up and smiled.

"Hi." Madeline said to Stefan with a small smile.

"Hi." he said back.

"Teenagers are gross." Max muttered before walking away from the door and up to his room.

"What, uh. What are you doing here?" Madeline asked as she walked closer to the door.

"Well you sort of left out of the blue and didn't say bye or anything, so I wanted to check on you. See if you were okay." Stefan explained, making Madeline smile. She was surprised he even cared that much. I mean, she knew that she shouldn't be surprised since the two were friends and all, but she just thought that he would be to wrapped up with Elena to notice.

"I'm fine. I just…I don't know, I kinda just got tired and wanted to go home I guess. I didn't want to bother you or anything since you were talking to Elena and all." She explained, but when she tried to think about why she left so quickly, her mind went blank.

Stefan notice this and could only come up with one reason for it; Damon. "I uh, I saw you with Damon earlier when we were watching the comet." He brought up.

"Oh yeah. I didn't think he'd show up to that sort of thing. He seems nice." Madeline told him as her mind drifted back to her conversation with Damon.

"He's not." Stefan quickly said, making Madeline give him a weird look. "Just believe me. He's bad news." Stefan quickly added.

"Oh." Madeline said simply, not knowing what else to say. She didn't want to argue against him and say Damon wasn't bad because she didn't really know Damon that well and he did give off the bad guy kind of vibe. Plus, Stefan was his brother and she thought that if anyone knew Damon it would be Stefan. "Anyways, how'd things go with Elena. Did you fix things?" Madeline asked, desperately trying to change the subject.

"Uh, yeah." Stefan said, scratching the back of his neck, awkwardly. "We kissed."

"Oh." Madeline said surprised. "That's um...that's good. I mean for you two. Do you like her?" Madeline asked, surprising herself with her question.

She had always known that Elena liked Stefan just from the way she acted, but she wasn't sure if Stefan reciprocated those feelings.

"I don't know. I uh I think so." Stefan said, a little unsure.

"Well if you're happy, I'm happy." Madeline told him with a supportive smile. "I should probably go get Max to bed. I'll see you at school though, right?"

"Yeah, yeah. Goodnight." Stefan said.

"Goodnight, Stefan." And with that Madeline closed the door.