AN: Okay, so I did not get a lot of reviews on chapter 8 of Oh, Brother, I guess that chapter wasn't good. That's a bummer. For those of you who haven't read it, read Oh, Brother, and Chapter eight if you haven't just read that one chapter, because if not this story might not make sense. As I said at the end of Chapter 8 I haven't decided whether or not to carry this story on passed a one-shot, but I'm leaning toward making this a chapter story and better go into the Daroline that I had set up in Oh, Brother. Okay, so this takes place basically two days after the events in Chapter 8 happened. How will things go down?

Chapter 1: What the Heck?

"How are you feeling?" Caroline asks as she walks into the boarding house. She sees Stefan sitting on the couch, hunched over, and staring at the fire. It's night time and she's worried about Stefan, because ever since the funeral he's been sitting at that very spot and getting wasted. He hasn't even fed at all since three days ago, when he returned from the college campus.

"I don't know that I want to feel anymore, Caroline." Stefan mutters.

Caroline swallows hard. She never had the luck to see Stefan in his ripper phase, but according to Elena and Damon, he was worse than any vampire imaginable, and that's saying something, because she's pretty sure she'd seen Damon at his worse, and he was pretty unpredictable and evil in his day. "You don't mean that, Stefan." She says grimly. She cautiously approaches Stefan and sits beside him.

"I do, Caroline, how can I not mean it. I failed him. I let my chances slip through my fingers. I forced him to turn and I killed him, how can I ever continue to live with myself?" Stefan says with a certain voice. He glances up at her, and Caroline notices how broken and shattered he looks. He looks like a shell of himself. His eyes aren't even red and puffy they are just void of everything. He must have cried himself out, and Caroline doesn't doubt that for a second, because the way he was sobbing at the funeral must have surely done the job.

"Stefan, Damon wouldn't have wanted that." Caroline tries to reason. The moment she says his name, something sparks in Stefan's eyes, and it only grows when she refers to Damon with past-tense verbs. She grows fearful; Stefan's not exactly looking stable or at all sane right now. His eyes gleam with hurt, loss, unshed tears, anger, hatred, and something that she can't quite place. She even has to recompose herself when she thinks on the sentence she just said. Damon is referred to in past-tense now? Is this what she has to live with? Just three days ago, he was asking her to a dance and was failing miserably at trying to hide his feelings for her. She had feelings for him too, but she remembers that she thought it was the cutest thing she ever saw, and that's saying something because it's Damon Salvatore she's talking about here.

"I can't do this right now, Caroline." Stefan says as he stands up. Caroline stands up too and puts a hand on his shoulder. He growls and pushes her hand off in anger. She swallows hard and backs up unknowingly a couple of steps. "You just referred to my brother with his name in past-tense, and now you're trying to console me? You don't know what he would've wanted! You don't know that it wasn't my fault! I'm going to go alleviate the pain." Stefan finally composes himself before rushes out the door with his vampire speed.

It takes Caroline a moment before she can regain control of herself. She was frightened for her life, more so than she has ever been, even more than when Damon was holding a stake just inches from her heart, threatening her with a cold, hard voice that she needed to die. She has to call Bonnie. Wow! Bonnie, where has she been? No one's seen her since the night of the funeral, well that's not exactly true; because she did see her yesterday, but for a moment and her eyes looked tired and baggy. The spell she cast did exhaust her somewhat, but it certainly would have wore off by now. The phone rings and she hears the phone being answered, "Bonnie, it's Caroline, Stefan's losing it. He's completely gone insane. I was afraid for my life just now and he now he's sped off somewhere to go alleviate his 'pain'."

"Caroline?" She hears a voice come over the line. It's a voice she's not supposed to hear ever again. Why is this person answering Bonnie's phone? What the heck is going on?

"Damon?" She asks. The name barely manages to make it out of her throat, let alone off of her tongue.

She hears shuffling in the background and then hears the voice that should've answered the phone, "Caroline?"

"Bonnie, what the heck, was that…who I….he…tell me what's going on, Bonnie!" Caroline practically screams into the phone.

"It's okay, Caroline, come over to my house and I'll explain everything." Bonnie answers.

"It's Stefan, I can't exactly come over right now, but tell me this, has Damon been alive this whole time? Does he not care that we've been mourning for him? That Stefan's completely lost it? Do you two think this is fun?"

"No, Caroline, of course not. When I was travelling home from the funeral I found Damon barely alive, covered in dirt on the side of the road. He didn't recognize me, but somehow I managed to half carry him to my car and later into my home. He was slipping away fast, but I managed to get some blood bags that I had at my house for whenever you came over for a sleepover. I've been nursing him back to health for two days now. He grabbed my cell-phone when you called and answered."

"Hang on, I'm coming over." Caroline says as she hangs up the phone and quickly speeds over to her friend's house.

"Bonnie…open up!" Caroline screams as she violently knocks on her friend's door.

"Shush, Caroline, he's got an incessant headache." Bonnie says as she opens the door and allows Caroline to come in.

The minute Caroline walks in her eyes have to readjust. It's completely dark, and the only light provided is by a few candles scattered about the shelves of the room. "Why is it so dark in here?"

"I have a headache, and Bonnie's trying to juju me or something." Damon groans.

Caroline's eyes grow wide and she immediately flicks her gaze over to Damon the not dead undead who is lying on the couch with an arm over his eyes. His arm is skin and bone and he is wearing something way out of his wardrobe. Is that Bonnie's dad's clothes? "Damon?"

He slowly moves his arm away from his eyes and Caroline notices just how gray and ashen his skin is. He's drenched in sweat and his eyes are sunken in. He looks exhausted and half-alive. He looks like he is barely hanging on to consciousness. He tries to sit up, but Bonnie has to help him, when he fails. "I'm trying to stop the pain and get your body to heal itself quicker."

"What's this I heard about Stefan falling off the rails?" Damon asks.

"I…uh…he's heartbroken like all of us are, were." Caroline corrects herself.

Damon frowns, "I'll go to him." He says as he barely manages to stand up. Caroline notices that it takes up all of his will power.

"You can't, Damon, yes you're ten thousand times better, but you can't handle it. Your body will not handle it, and you could die again, this time right in front of Stefan, just because he is falling off the rails." Bonnie tries to reason.

Damon frowns and turns toward her, "Why do you care so much for me?"

"I care, Damon, believe it or not, you grew on me the last week, before you died." Bonnie solemnly explains.

Damon manages a feeble attempt at a smirk, "It's Stefan, Bonnie." He says and as he's heading out the door he stops when Caroline's phone rings.

"Hello?" She answers.

"Caroline? Oh, thank goodness, I reached you. Anna's over here, we were walking back from a movie and we caught sight of Stefan and he's going crazy. Anna's managed to break his neck and bring him home with us, but he's woken up now and we've taken his ring. He's insane, and shattered to bits I need your help!" Elena all but screams over the line.

Damon hears that, and before anyone can protest he's gone and the door is left wide open. Caroline looks over at Bonnie, who nods, and Caroline tightly grips her friend's hand and speeds off in the direction of the Gilbert house. She reaches it before Damon does and figures that it's because he's so weak. She pushes the door open and she and Bonnie rush inside to see Anna pinning Stefan down, Elena in tears and being comforted by Jeremy, Alaric dangling over Stefan with a fully-loaded crossbow held in the ready position, and a more than frantic Jenna practically screaming in a corner of the room.

"Jenna?" Caroline looks over at her friend's aunt with compassion.

"I've already told her two nights ago. I couldn't offer up an adequate lie, but this is when she actually gets to see it." Alaric explains exasperatedly, his eyes never leaving Stefan.

"Stefan?" Caroline asks as she approaches him with subtle movements. She signals Anna to let him go, and when the young vampire glances at Bonnie she does that and before Stefan can make a move for it, Bonnie gives him an aneurism.

Stefan groans and sits back down, and when Bonnie stops the pain, he sits in place, looking more lost and drained than ever.

"I can't do this anymore, Caroline," Stefan says.

"You were going to kill somebody." The blonde states matter-of-factly.

"No, I was going to alleviate the pain; I was going to kill myself at my brother's grave." Stefan says in a small voice.

"Stefan—" Elena starts, but is interrupted by a surprise guest.

"Now, is that anyway for you to behave, little brother? Get all suicidal, and leave these good people behind? Leave Elena? Leave everyone that cares about you behind, even me?" He says in a raspy, unused voice as he enters the room.

Caroline looks back at him and studies him; he looks ten times worse, if it's even possible.

She hears a sob and a frightening crack of laughter come out of Stefan and then she sees him in front of Damon with cynical eyes.

For minutes it seems like the brothers are having a private conversation with their eyes and no one dares to say anything to interrupt it. "Damon?" Stefan's voice finally cracks.

Damon nods in response, "It's okay, Stefan." He says.

Stefan looks back at Bonnie and growls, his face transforming, into the true monster, "What is this, Bonnie? Some sort of joke? You have to get me to calm down by conjuring up some sickly vision of my deceased brother?"

"No, Stefan, he's really there." Bonnie says, her voice pleading.

Stefan rushes at her and grabs her by the throat in rage, "Stop this, Bonnie!" He shakes her, and before Bonnie can give him a painful headache, arms forcefully pry him loose and he's face to face with his brother suddenly believing that it's him and not a vision brought on by witchcraft. "Damon?" Stefan asks, this time innocently and much more softly.

Damon's only groans in response, and Stefan notices out of the corner of his eyes that everyone is gasping in shock and that Alaric is forcefully tossing his weapon aside. Stefan glances down at it, the stake that it was loaded with is gone. "Stef?" Damon manages to get out breathlessly before he collapses into Stefan's arms.

"Damon!" Stefan screams aloud frantically. His brother's eyelids are fluttering and as Stefan looks he sees a stake protruding out of his brother's back. It's near his heart; Damon would have been dead by now if it wasn't.

AN: Okay, there you have it, the first chapter to the sequel of Oh, Brother. Please review and tell me what you think. I want to go more into the brother's relationship and how it's going to be changing and different, and I also want to go more into the Daroline aspect of it, now that Damon can finally take Caroline to a dance. Don't worry, I'm not that mean to bring Damon back and kill him off again so quickly, especially not in Stefan's arms. I'm not that bad. I hope you like it and I want to thank my two reviewers on chapter 8 of Oh, Brother. Please review on this chapter and let me hear your thoughts, your likes, and your dislikes. I love to read them. I can't ask you to do it for seven year old Damon anymore, because he's back to normal, but I can ask you to do it for the brothers, because after all aren't they the best relationship of the show? I love when they interact in all their glory and anger. So don't hesitate, the review button should be just below this message. :)